AVP: Your either Predator or Prey
by SomeGuyOverHere
Summary: Its basically post apocolyptia with the aliens and predators thrown into the mix.  In this world, with Aliens and Predators, a group of former commandos finds itself in a serious mess. CHAPTER 14 IS UP!
1. Chapter 1

___Chapter 1_

___Mistake of the Gods_

_Year 2020: A Yaujta(Predator) ship containing Xenomorph(alien) eggs and beginning stages is ambushed by a ship of a rival clan. Unknown to them the planet over which the ship was floating above was populated.__  
_  
Amu'ga fought furiously to keep the ship in space. The room was flooded with a crimson red light as the alarms went off, the horns screeched through the ship with a deafening cry. Sparks flew across the control boards, everywhere he looked warnings and alarms covered the screens. Warnings flashed on the control boards.

The ship shook violently; the damned rivals had been foolish. Not only was it forbidden to interrupt a blooding ritual but they had done it from afar and without announcing the attack. Dishonorable cowards! He jammed down on a series of buttons; he felt the ship stabilize itself as the starboard engines roared to life. A few crew members helping him try to save the ship lost their balance and fell from the sudden realignment.  
Under normal circumstances it would have been humorous, but he had no such time for humor.

"All warriors, report to the escape cruiser!"He shouted over the intercom. He looked

Up from the intercom and stared into the empty void. The enemy ship drifted hundreds of meters away, no doubt watching in amusement as their ship fluttered back and forth between life and death.

"If I must die I will have the honor of taking their lives as well," he growled to himself.

He jammed down on a series of buttons, a screen shot up with a picture of the enemy ship. He slammed a fist down on a button. He heard the sound of the main weapon powering up, then he heard it discharge three bursts of energy. The blue bolts of energy raced towards the enemy ship, he could imagine the surprised looks on their faces when they saw the danger approaching.  
The enemy ship rumbled to life and quickly fired up its engines. The first burst missed as the pilot managed to maneuver the ship slightly. But the next two hit clear across the nose of their ship, the bolts of pure energy burned their way through the metal alloy, but they were all non vital hits.  
Amu'ga watched as the enemy began to charge up their own weapons. He looked down at the screen, the escape ship had been launched, and his comrades were safe. He turned his gaze back to the enemy ship. It fired its weapons, he watched as the bright bolts flew towards him. He closed his eyes and awaited the Black Warrior.*

*The Black Warrior is the Predator version of the Grim Reaper*

2020: 2 hours after the crash. The pieces of the ship scattered after going through the atmosphere. The largest pieces landed in East U.S.A, Western Europe, Southern Russia, and Southern Mongolia. Smaller pieces were scattered near the bigger ones.  
Sanders had joined up to fight for his country. He'd joined up to fight the good fight. To be one of those soldiers on the promotional posters, standing tall and proud with a sense of duty in their pose.

He'd joined up to fight the Taliban and any other bastards that had a problem with America. He had not joined up for this.

The dozen other marines sat silently as the truck backed up past the yellow tape. Sanders looked out the open back; the piece of crap that had fallen from the sky was massive. Easily as tall as a ten story building and probably a foot ball field long and wide. Fires dotted its massive structure, every now and then a chunk would fall off from the main piece. He'd signed up to fight the god damn Taliban, not hump his way through some freaky science fiction crap that had fallen out of the damn sky.

"Alright people, we are here to investigate and report. We don't know if there's anything in there that'll attack but keep your guns close and your teammates closer just in case. Any questions?"

"Yeah," said a private, "why aren't the damn egg heads doing this?"

"Because they send all the smart ones to the marine's dumbshit!"  
A few of the marines burst into chuckles.

"Now if there are no more stupid questions, let's get on with this!"

"YES SIR!"

The truck came to a stop right in front of the structure and the marine's piled out. From there they used C4 to blow their way in, then they split into six man squads to search through the structure. As they searched they could hear the sounds of other teams making their way into the strange structure. Sanders kept his FN SCAR close to his chest, his shouldered flash light illuminating the dark and foreboding hallways of the structure. His breathing became labored and loud as he traveled with his comrades through the hallways. He soon became worried that he was breathing too loud but realized everyone else was doing the exact same thing.

"This is Bravo-2, anybody reading me?"Asked someone over the COM

"This is Delta-4, I read you, "replied the Captain

"Roger Delta-4 we are making our way up to what we believe to be the fifth floor. We're seeing signs of melted alloy. How about you?"

"We ain't got much, except a bunch of pansy's that call themselves marines, "he replied then looked at the squad accusingly.

"I hear you Delta-4...hold on a sec...what was that? Private was that you?..."

"Bravo-2, you all right?"

"Yeah, could have sworn I heard something though...we're moving up to the next floor. Bravo-2 out."

"Come on ladies, we ain't getting paid by the hour," commanded the Captain. The squad continued down the ominous hallway, their lights their only salvation from the dark.  
Eventually they exited the hallway and entered into a large wide open room. Inside were multiple glass cylinders, kinda like what you'd find in a science lab. Water covered the floor, the marines made splashing sounds as the spread across the room.

"This shit is becoming seriously freaky, "commented one marine.

"Tell me about it, I'd almost rather be in Rwanda, fighting the New Taliban."

"Shut it tweedle dee and tweedle dumb, "growled the Captain.

"What does that make me?"Asked another marine.

"Dipshit."

"Hey! Captain, found something over here!"Shouted one of the marines.

"Over where?"

"Over here, it looks like an egg!"

"Don't touch it!"Shouted the Captain as he motioned for the marines to follow him.

"Whoa! It opened up!"

"I said don't touch it marine!"

"I didn't Captain I just-"

The marine's sentence ended in a muffled sound.

"Marine! Respond!" Nothing."GO! GO! GO!"

The entire squad flicked their rifle safeties off. They rushed over to their comrade, rifles at the ready.

"Marine! Respond damn it!"Shouted the Captain.

"Over here!"Shouted one marine. The squad gathered over by the marine, he knelt down to the body of their missing member."There's something on his face."

Sanders moved to get a better look and saw that the man was right. There was some sort of pale spider like creature attached to the Private's face with a thin tail wrapped around his neck.

"Get it off!"Shouted someone. Sander took both sides of the creature with his hands and pulled, the thing remained attached, actually pulling the marine's head with it as Sander's heaved with all his might.

"This is Delta-4! We have a man down! Something's on his face! We're evacing now!"Shouted the Captain.

"Hold on buddy! Hold on! We'll get you help! Don't worry!"

Bravo-2 stood silent as they listened to Delta-4's transmission.

_"Hold on buddy! Hold on! We'll help you help! Don't worry!"_

"Damn, guess we aren't alone in here, "said one marine.

"Stow it boy, "said the Captain, "let's move one."

The team had somehow found themselves in a large area with enough room to fit 500 people easily. They assumed it was some sort of cargo area but it was completely empty, nothing except some weird shit on the floor, so maybe a sewer system. It was defiantly moist enough.

"Captain, maybe we should clear out. I mean we don't even know what we'r-"

"Shut up marine, we do as we're told!"

"Yeah bu-"

"You scared?"

"No sir but considering-"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" 

Officer and subordinate whipped around at the blood curling scream. The squad gathered around a fallen marine, the captain pushed his men out of the way to get a better look. The marine had some sort of strange creature on his face; it matched exactly the description of the thing that took down one of Delta-4's men.

"What the fuck is that?" asked one marine.

The captain opened his mouth to respond but was silenced by a sudden hiss. The squad sprung to their feet, forming into a tight defensive circle. Their rifle's clicked as the flicked their safeties off. Their beams of light wandered frantically as the marine's searched for their target.

"Anyone see anything?"

"Nah!"

"Nothing!"

"I ain't got zip!"

The Captain tensed, his eyes locked down the sights of his rifle. He felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek; his breath became quick and brief. His heart pounded like a jackhammer, it pumped so fast he thought it might actually burst from his chest. A whole minute passed without anything, then two, then three. He began to relax; perhaps it had simply been their imagination.  
He was about to call the men at ease, when suddenly he felt a burst of pain lance through his chest. He screamed as he looked down and saw a sharp object protruding from his body. Blood fountaind out of him as the object lifted him off the floor with ease.

"Holy Fuck!"

"Shit!"

"Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!"

"It's a mother fucking ambush!" 

The captain felt his vision begin to black out. His senses began to fade rapidly. He knew they were only below him but it felt like they were miles away as he heard the sounds of gunfire and screeches. The cries of dying men and the unmistakable sound of breaking bones and tearing flesh. He closed his eyes and never opened them again.  
_2021__  
__The marine's inside the strange structure lost contact with the outside world. It would take an hour to explain the loss of contact to the command branch. Another hour to decide what to do, and another hour to assemble a force to go in and investigate the situation. _

_By then, what marines that had survived the initial assault from the Queen and her small force of Predaliens were dead. But fate was merciful to those few. The majority of the 40 marines that had entered the structure were incapacitated and captured, then impregnated by the larval stages of the alien breed. They became hosts to the dangerous creatures, vessels to create the perfect life form. One with no feelings, no remorse, no conscience and no regard for life. _

_By the time the new force of marines had entered the structure, the larva had matured into full grown warriors. The humans were easily slaughtered, fighting an enemy they had no information about and no way to counter. All they could do was die. Soon the alien threat broke out from its hive and wiped out the human forces easily, despite their technology and machines of war, they were no match for this force that had conquered worlds thousands of times over.__  
__The threat of the alien invaders became widespread. Everywhere people knew about the strange new breed of creatures that was quickly becoming the scourge of the human race. After an entire year from the incident, parts of the world were already lost with little hope of recovery._

_The U.S.A had lost Ohio, Kentucky and Nebraska.__  
__Europe had lost Ireland, half of Spain, lower Norway and Italy's heel.__  
__Russia was one of the luckiest, it only the city of Omsk and the surrounding area.__  
__Mongolia however lost 3/4 of its entire territory.__  
__India and Afghanistan lost much of its territory.__  
__Africa was lightly touched and only had a few minor out breaks in Algeria.__  
__Australia and Canada was the only piece of land that remained completely untouched.__  
__By then the UN had gathered together to try and quell the new threat that endangered the entire human race.__  
_

Joint Operation  
U.S.M.C  
Russian Spetsnaz  
Location: Kentucky, Frankfort  
Time: 18:43:32 

Anna Semenov kept her eyes to the floor of the American Stryker. Her AK-120 across her lap. Its sleek black finish curved magazine and invincible structure payed tribute to the famous AK-47 used back in the day. She had outfitted her own with a 5x ACOG scope and under barrel grenade launcher. Her vest carried an entire bandolier of 40mm grenades, it added to the menace of her appearance. She liked it.

Anna had a slim but athletic body, one that had come in handy when dodging enemy fire or running from the bugs. In addition she had an attractive face and dark short hair.

She had known long ago it wasn't very good to be a pretty woman in the army; men had a tendency to flirt with you. Of course no one in her squad would even think of flirting with her, legend had it that one of her squad mates had had complimented her impressive bust then woken up with a dead pig head on his chest. She had even once threatened to cut off someone's balls and feed it to them through force.  
As an icing on the cake, she twirled a knife around her fingers, like one would do with a pencil.

The tension in the Stryker was so thick she could have probably cut it with her knife. The Spetsnaz sat on one side facing the Marines on the other. The two teams sat glaring at each other, there had always been rivalry between Russia and U.S but it had escalated when Russia had threatened to nuke the U.S if it didn't get its bug problem under control. The U.N forbid the use of nuclear strikes but every country had built itself at least three nuke's just in case.

"Hey, watch this, "whispered one of the marines."Hey! Lady!"

Anna immediately stopped twirling her knife; she looked up to face the American.

"How'd you get into the Spetsnaz? With your mouth or your tits?"

A few marine's chuckled at the joke but most of them kept their mouth shut. They were the smart ones, because as soon as they began to chuckle, Anna twirled the knife and grabbed it by the hilt. With a small flick of her wrists she tossed the knife end over end, it flew past the marine's ear and sunk itself directly by his face.  
The chuckles immediately died down, the marine's eyes widened as he saw how close the knife had come to his face.

The cold glare in Anna's eyes told him she could have hit him if she wanted to; casually she reached onto her belt and drew out another knife, then proceeded to twirl it as well. The only difference was that now she kept her eyes locked with the American's.

"She shut you up good marine, "commented their Sargeant, "I expect you to be a gentleman and return the knife she misplaced."

"Sarge I was just messi-"

"Now marine!"

The marine hesitantly reached back and pulled the knife from the wall behind him. Then slowly held it out for Anna to take back. She lightly kicked the marine's hand, making him throw the knife into the air; she easily snatched it from the air and put it back into its sheath.

A few Spetsnaz chuckled at the loudmouth marine, a few marines joined in as well.

"That ain't funny man, I could have been killed, "he whined.

"Stow it boy!"Growled his Sergeant.

"We're at the Drop off point!"Announced the driver,

Anna sheathed the knife she was spinning and readied her rifle. She ejected the magazine for a quick maintenance check, her fellow Spetsnaz were doing similar things with their weapons.

One of them, a big bear of a Russian that everyone had come to nickname 'Bear' reached to the ceiling of the Stryker and pulled down an M1314 minigun. He slung a large backpack of ammo onto his back, and then rolled his muscular shoulders. The Stryker's back door fell open.

The Private to her left was the first one out of the Stryker; she jumped up from her seat and ran out after him with the rest of the Russian warriors storming after them.

"Come on grunts! You wanna go back home to mama and tell her a bunch of bears out ran you?" Shouted the Sergeant. 

The squad of Spetsnaz and Marines stomped through the streets of the ruined city of Frankfort. Its buildings had remained largely intact but it still felt like it had been destroyed. Wind whistled through the streets, buildings looked like they had been around for hundreds of years, paint chipped, chunks missing, windows smashed. Cars crowded the sides of the roads, abandoned in a rush to escape the black tide of animals. The sun had just set; the moon illuminated the sad scene. What had once been a city filled with people was now no more than a ghost town.

Anna took cover behind a broken down car, rust and time had formed a partnership and had not been kind to it.

"Wait for the signal, "whispered the American Sergeant.

A few moments passed, suddenly a flare burst up into the air, only twelve meters away from them. Then another shot up, then another and another. The entire night sky lit up like the stars had fallen closer to earth.

"There's the signal! Go! Go! GO!"Shouted the Sergeant. The Spetsnaz captain ordered the same, the two teams rushed into the city. In the distance Anna could already hear the sounds of gunfire, the screeches of the bugs and the death of both sides. Americans and Russian alike burst into building after building, clearing them of the infestations.

Anna kicked down the door of an abandoned Holiday Inn hotel. She pulled down her night vision goggles to her eyes and turned the on, the entire room took on a sickly green hue.  
Almost immediately the bugs attacked them. A pair screeched at them from the ceiling, no doubt calling its hive.

"Contact!" She shouted, she sighted the dark horror and opened fire, the bug screamed as the bullets tore it to pieces. She shifted her fire to its companion, who was trying to escape. The powerful rounds tore through its exoskeleton riddled it with holes.

Anna ejected her empty magazine and reloaded, she walked on past the front desk and into a hallway. The entire surface of the walls was covered in a thick, spongy resin.

A bug scuttled into view at the other end of the hallway, it let out a deafening scream. Anna shut it up with a few rounds to its head.

Too late.

The walls began to come to life, bugs pushed out from their crevices in the walls. Everywhere she looked the walls seemed to be giving birth to new bugs. She aimed her rifle and jammed down on the trigger.

The bugs screeched as they fell under the stream of bullets, she emptied her magazine and reloaded, then resumed fire. But the horde would not be stopped; every second she took to reload they got closer and closer. She pulled the trigger of her grenade launcher; the projectile flew into the mass and detonated. It enveloped a dozen of the creatures in a fiery explosion, sending chunks of exoskeleton and limbs flying everywhere. But it still wasn't enough, sweat coursed down her neck as she backed up into a wall.

She felt something grab her shoulders, a pair of strong claws clamped down on her like a vice. She turned her head to see the drooling teeth of a bug. It opened its jaw and revealed its inner mouth.

Anna whipped around used the stock of her rifle to brutally smash the side of its head. It wasn't enough to kill the thing but it saved her from having a giant hole in her head, the bug crumpled to the floor, she raised her rifle and riddled it with bullets.  
A few drops of acid flew from the body and landed on her sleeve. It instantly began to burn through her sleeve. She hastily drew a knife and slashed at the cloth, hoping to prevent any more of the liquid from burning through.

She turned back to the hallway, only to see the horde only five feet away. The lead bug stood onto its hind legs and prepared to jump on her.

"GET DOWN!"

Anna dropped to the floor. Above her she could hear the roar of a minigun as it chewed though hundreds of shells of ammo, a rain of discharged shells fell on her back, blanketing her in metal. Finally the sound of gun fire ceased, she looked up from the floor. The entire hoard of bugs had been wiped out; many had been left in two to three pieces.

"You all right?" asked Bear, standing above her with his minigun smoking.

"Fine, "she replied, pushing herself up off the ground.

_The assault on Frankfort failed. While the initial attack had been successful on its own, the humans simply did not move fast enough to kill them while they had the advantage of surprise. One hour into the operation and the humans were no longer the predators, they became the prey. The aliens slaughtered them with the dark and through sheer numbers. A retreat was called too late._

_100 marines and 50 spetsnaz entered the town. Only 10 marines and 5 spetsnaz survived.__  
_

_2022__  
__The attempts at purging the new threat to humanity has met with failure. Thousands of lives were lost in attempts at defeating the threat. By then, U.S had lost 6 more states. Europe had lost all of Spain, Norway and Italy. Then lost Portugal, Sweden, and Finland._

_Mongolia had but 1/8th of its original territory left.__  
__India soon became completely lost, with a few thousand survivors managing to escape._

_Most of the Middle East had been lost.__  
__China, Japan and Korea banded together to combat the growing threat in Asia but had little success._

_Russia lost 1/5 of its territory in the south.__  
__Canada began to have minor outbreaks along the borders of the U.S, __  
__Australia became infected through impregnated humans that boarded the boats in hopes of a safe place, losing 1/3 of its territory in six months.__  
__The Latin Americas lost half their states and 1/3 of Mexico._

_Many in the UN began to talk about the future of mankind and how they would survive the inevitable defeat. Russia, Canada, Australia and China were the only ones that supported the thoughts of having a fall back plan._

_The other's insisted on continuing the fight._

_Regardless of the others, the four Countries began to come up with plans on how to survive the coming storm. The four eventually came up with the idea of Project: Fallout._

_Underground sanctuaries, buried so deep underground not even the alien's could reach them. All four began to build such places in their respective countries. Australia managed to build one for every major city. Russia built enough to house 5 million people. Canada had the most, managing to place 5 shelters, that could each contain 1 million people, in each state. China managed to build enough for each province in its country but each could only support 100,000 or so._

_The other countries laughed. They should have followed. After two years of hiding, growing, and breeding. The Aliens time, had come._

Reed sat lazily at his guard tower at Fort Turtle. The place was supposed to completely impenetrable. It was surrounded by 500 yards of electrified fence; it had minigun emplacements on each wall. To boot it housed 300 battle ready marines and contained a dozen tanks. So why the hell would they need him, a sniper with a .50 caliber rifle, to sit up here in the guard post and keep watch?

He sat laid back in his chair, chewing on his gum and watching the barren plain for any sign of movement.

"Uh...Pvt. Reed?"Crackled a voice over the COM,

"What?"He asked bluntly.

"Um...We're reading motion from the drones to the south, the direction just in front of you. Check it out. Over."

"Fine, "he replied with a sigh,

He got onto his feet and lifted up his Barrette. He adjusted he scope and looked down south to where the drones were stationed. A single bug scurried around the plain, wandering aimlessly, almost in a circle.

"The fuck? Bugs are never alone." He whispered no matter.

He placed the thing in his crosshairs and squeezed the trigger. The rifle kicked back as it released the giant bullet, it flew true and straight, blowing the thing's head clean off.

"Boom. Headshot."He stood up from his sniping position and turned on his COM,"just a straggler, I took care of it. Out."

He went back to his chair and closed his eyes; this place was too damn hot. Why did Texas have to be so damn hot?

"Uh...Reed?" Said the voice again, snapping him out of his napping.

"What!" He growled.

"We're still reading movement."

He muttered a curse then used his scope to see what was out there. He saw three bugs, standing over the body of their fallen pack member. One of them screeched into the air, loud enough for every marine to take notice.

"Holy Shit"

Seemingly out of nowhere, dozens of bugs burst out of the horizon, charging towards the fort. Reed wasn't worried until dozen became hundreds. He still wasn't too worried, they were just animals. Then hundreds became thousands.

Okay, now he was worried.

Everywhere he looked a thick blanket of black limbs and claws covered the landscape. It was like an army of giant ants, coming to swarm over an opposing colony. 

"Everybody on your feet! We've got lots of trouble!"He shouted.

Every marine dropped what they were doing and went to their battle stations. 

"We won't survive this, "he whispered as he looked out at the endless horde.

_2023_

_The defeat seems soon. The bugs have surely won._

_ The UN knows this, everyone does. In a last desperate attempt, the UN approves the use of the nuclear devices._

_The U.S launches its missiles into the states most infested. Russia fires its warheads, everyone fires their nukes. Entire hives are wiped out in a blink of an eye, many believe it to be the beginning of their victory. But it was not so. Other hives simply took the place of the destroyed ones; the nukes have done nothing except cause a dangerous spike in radiation._

_The shelters built by Russia, China, Canada and Australia have been completed. The other countries desperately attempt to build their own shelters._

_U.S manages to station one in Washington, California, Utah, Wyoming, and Florida. Citizens crowd around to try and enter the safe zones, they are not let in._

_By the end of the year, people have started living in the underground shelters. The only state left standing is Alaska. Russia has made a last desperate stand in Moscow. China has only Beijing and Shanghai left._

_Japan and Korea are gone. India and the entire Middle East is gone. Latin America is gone. Mexico makes a last stand at its capital. Europe has only the UK and Germany left._

_Human civilization has all but crumbled. There are no more governments. If there is a president he's in the stomach of a bug. There is no more military, only stragglers that must fend for themselves.__  
__The Bugs have won.___

Lily grasped the hand of her mother firmly. She brushed her blonde hair from her face as they followed the soldiers down the deep dark hallway. Only a few high powered flashlights illuminated their path.

"Mommy, I'm scared, "she said, tugging on her mother's sleeve.

"I know honey, "she replied, "I am too."

"Can we go back home?"

"No Lily, this is our new home now."

_2025_

_Yet all is not lost for the human race. From the day the first of us made a fire, to the day we learned to defy gravity, we have been a resilient race. Perhaps it was divine intervention, perhaps it was the science of the bug brain, and perhaps it's simply luck._

_Whatever it was, it prevented the humans from becoming extinct. Many made a life on the surface, they survived and reproduced. A few managed to make settlements. Most simply wandered around and tried to survive._

_Those in the shelters had also done well for themselves. Each shelter had been equipped enough supplies for an entire year. In addition live stock and farming was integrated into the shelters. _

_The people in the shelters had been chosen for their use to the community, metal workers, farmers, and computer specialists, everything they would need to rebuild. Even weapons makers were saved, what was left of the military were used as parties to go to the surface and scavenge for supplies.__  
__No matter what it was that saved them, the humans were still alive._

Elliot stood in the queue for scavenger supplies. The line of about 5 men, all his age waited as they received a standard pack and weapon for scavenger business. Elliot had always wanted to see the outside world again, that is why he joined up with the scavenger teams. As the recruit in front of him received his pack and weapon, Elliot stepped up to the counter.

"Elliot, good to see you how've you been?"Asked the grizzly shop keeper.

"Pretty good I guess. "He responded.

"Finally going up to see the big world are ya?"Asked smelly man,"ain't ya a little young?"

"I'm 16 Harold, I can take care of it. "He said, crossing his arms.

"Ha! Before the bugs we had to wait until we was 18 to join any sort of military, "said Harold as he walked into the back.

"I know Harold, I lived up there too."

"Yeah whatever" said Harold, coming back with a pack and gun."Here you go standard equipment for the fresh meat. Your packs got a canteen of water and a box of rations that'll last you about a week. Here's your gun. Submachine gun, made from parts in the shelter. Shitty accuracy, chews through ammo like my 2nd wife with bacon but has a high rate of fire and is reliable."

"Thanks...I think," he said taking the weapon.

"Don't thank me; thank it when it saves your life. See ya when you get back."

"If I get back."

_Else where_

_"_This is our fault and you know it, "said the taller Yautja.

He was the tallest of the trio and held a large hammer in his right hand. The trio stared out the glass panel, watching the ooman planet as if it were about to explode.

"Not our fault, "said the second tallest, a larger than normal burner on his shoulder."It is the fault of those honorless fools. It is against the laws to interrupt with a blooding ritual."

"It doesn't matter, "said the shortest, in the middle, "it's happened and there is nothing we can do."

"C'jit!* I wanted to hunt ooman so badly!"Shouted the tall one.

"Be silent, they are all dead. Taken by the serpents," scolded the second.

"No, they are not, "said the shortest. The other two looked at him, puzzled.

"What do you mean?"Asked the second, "none can survive the swarm once it is in full bloom."

"They are a resilient species, like us, like me."

"You are different, "reasoned the tall one.

"Perhaps, but it am still what I am."

"We'll never forget that, "whispered the second.

"I begin to question the wisdom of seeding planets, "said the tallest.

"That could be accounted as treason. "Said the second.

"I agree," said the shortest.

"You're both crazy."

"Someday I will be elder, "stated the shortest, "when that day comes, I shall change the rules of the ritual. No longer will the Serpents infest another planet like this."

"You truly believe you'd become an elder? You?" Asked the second.

"He has a chance, "assured the tallest.

"I don't see the problem with this planet; the oomans were weak and were conquered. They are just prey," stated the second, crossing his arms.

"My lords "said an unblooded behind them."The elder is ready to see you."

"Very well, "said the shortest, he turned his head, and took off his mask as custom. Revealing his face. His human face.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A different kind of hunt

Ak'shara walked down the poorly lit hallway. His metal sandals noisily clacking along the floor as he strode to the Elder's quarters. He kept his ugly face in plain view and simply cradled his mask in his left arm.

He noticed that the guards visibly tensed when they saw him, which brought him a small amount of amusement. To think that a human could see the elder in private was beyond them. On either side of him stood his two best friends and hunting partners for life.

On his right stood one of the largest Yautja ever to be born, Ta'veta. The large Yautja was easily a full head taller than Ak'shara and despite having human blood; Ak'shara was not a short hunter. (He's 7'2)Ta'veta and he had met during Ak'shara's training; both had been picked on by the other unblooded. Ak'shara for having an ugly face and human blood, Ta'veta for being so large he'd probably be heard before he even got close to his prey. The two had formed a bond of friendship that had been sealed through the hardships they'd faced.

To his left stood one of the smartest Yautja ever to be born, L'hiem. L'hiem was only an inch or so taller than Ak'shara, a fact that L'hiem constantly pointed out. L'hiem had met Ak'shara on their blooding ritual; L'hiem had trained many times with a burner before and was one of the best shots. During the blooding ritual Ak'shara's burner had short circuited, leaving him at a large disadvantage. L'hiem however stepped in and fixed it for him, in return Ak'shara allowed him to have the first kill. The two grew closer, especially when L'hiem found out that the other unblooded had sabotaged Ak'shara's equipment so that he would die.

But between the three of them, Ak'shara seemed to possess the most authority. His very visage seemed to demand respect from everyone he met. He had a broad chest and powerful muscles, yet he was slightly slimmer than an average Yautja. Still, by human standards the hunter was a giant.

His hair had been braided into dreadlocks, his skin bared the same tone as the other Yaujta and his eyes were golden and reptilian. Across his face, two scars stretched from his right eye brow and reached to he left of his lower jaw, cutting across his nose. He had received it during his blooding ritual, but not from the serpents.

One of his comrades, a foolish and large unblooded could not take being near him anymore. After Ak'shara had killed a Serpent and taken off his mask to blood himself, the unblooded swung at him with his wrist blades. Ak'shara had barely moved back quick enough; the twin blades had cut bloody marks across his face.

Ak'shara had impaled him with his glaive. Then, with L'hiem and Ta'veta as his witnesses, he claimed the foolish unblooded's skull as a trophy. It was one of his first, along with his first serpent skull. From that point on in his life, he vowed to become an elder and make it so that no hunter, elite or unblooded, would dare attack him again.

"You are expected, "said one of the guards.

"I know," he replied in a deep voice.

The guards looked visibly shaken as he glared at him with his murderous eyes. Ta'veta looked amused by their nervous shifting.

The large door opened for them and the trio walked in.

They walked down a large room; a single light was the source of illumination for the room. Along the sides, Serpent skulls hung across the wall, under each was an ooman skull. The elder so did love flaunting his trophies for all to see. At the other side of the room sat the Elder himself in his command chair. Each armrest was the skull of a serpent, the elder himself was a sight to behold. He was large and broad of shoulder. On his pauldrons was an ooman skull. Ak'shara snorted at having such a ridiculous ornament on one's armor.

But an elder was an elder, no matter how strange his attire might be, they demanded respect. Especially this one, above his command chair rested the elder's crowned jewel. A serpent queen's skull. It was a trophy most hunters, or even elders could only dream of possessing.

'I will possess one someday,' he thought to himself.

"Elder," they spoke together, kneeling down in respect, making sure to keep their gaze to the ground.

"Welcome my brethren, my elite hunters," boomed the Elder as he strode off his throne. The trio kept their eyes down.

"State your names," he said, stumbling slightly from side to side.

"Ak'shara."

"Ta'veta"

"La'hiem"

"Ak'shara?"Asked the elder, he walked awkwardly right in front of Ak'shara."Please, stand warrior."

Ak'shara obeyed and stood. Getting his first good look at the elder. One of his mandibles was missing, he had multiple scars around his face and his dreadlocks had turned to a vibrant blue. The most noticeable feature however, was the Elder's eyes.

They were pure white.

"Come closer, and let me see you." commanded the elder.

Ak'shara obeyed and leaned forward. The elder reached up with his claws and gently touched Ak'shara's face. Gently padding around his features, as if taking in information with his touch.

"Hmmmmm, they say you are ugly, and they are right. No mandibles, skin too soft, and a strange protrusion in the middle of your face," summed up the elder.

Ak'shara heard his comrades softly chuckle at the elders words.

"It is a shame. You will not have much luck with the females. Your children would have become magnificent hunters, if the stories about you are true."

"I used to measure a hunter's skill by observation. Now I can no longer do that," he said solemnly, gesturing to his eyes.

He swung around and walked back up to his throne.

"I still remember that day. My last hunt. I tried to fight another queen, I won. But the Serpent Queen is a devious prey, in a last act of defiance; she threw herself off a cliff and sprayed her blood into my eyes. How humiliating. Do I still have your respect, warriors?"

"Yes, Elder," they said together.

"That is good to know," he said."Tell me Ak'shara, you have proven yourself a capable warrior. What is your purpose?"

"Elder?"

"What do you strive for, I see in you a determination I have not seen for a long time."

"I strive...for recognition."

"And you shall have it. Some call you a badblood. But I know you are no badblood." Said the elder,

He grabbed a small disk like device then pressed a switch.

"Watch,"

A hologram flickered to life on the device. A large Yautja fought against other hunters. The Yautja moved with incredible speed, his glaive a whirl of motion as the spun around as sliced a hunter's throat, then stabbed another behind him using the back blade. The elder froze the image with the Yautja roaring in victory over the bloody corpses.

"This is a true badblood, one that would tarnish our laws and the hunt. He must be brought to justice," the elder commanded, bring a fist down on his chair."You will hunt him down and kill him."

"May I know the name of my prey elder?" Asked Ak'shara.

"He was once a mighty hunter. He was called B'sak. He had many trophies. But hunting serpents and ooman was not enough, he believed hunting his own was the greatest hunt. He became a hunter of badbloods but for some reason became insane. Now he is one."

"We swear we will bring him down," promised Ak'shara.

"Then you may leave, go and bring justice," commanded the elder. Ak'shara bowed then spun around, his companions in tow.  
As soon as they exited the room and walked a few paces, Ta'veta spoke.

"A badblood, I've always wanted to hunt one."

"I thought you'd always wanted to hunt a queen," pointed out La'hiem.

"I can wish for multiple things."

"You ask for too much."

"Quiet, both of you," commanded Ak'shara. Both of them immediately stopped their banter. Despite both of them being full blooded Yautja and larger than him, they followed his command without question. If it hadn't been for his orders, neither of them would have survived their blooding ritual.

"This is serious," he stated," we'll need to be well prepared. The ooman world was dangerous before, now it is filled with serpents."

"We've fought serpents before," pointed out La'hiem.

"Perhaps, but not an entire world of them."

"He has a point," commented Ta'veta.

"We have one hour to prepare," said Ak'shara, "report to the ship when you are done."

"Heavy or light?"Asked Ta'veta.

"We are hunting one of our own and will most likely not be back for many days, in addition there are oomans and serpents to deal with. Heavy."

"How do you know there are still Ooman's on the planet?"Asked La'hiem.

"I just do."

"Do not be blinded just because they are your kind," advised La'hiem.

"They are not my kind; you know that," spat Ak'shara.

"Well, not totally," said La'hiem as he walked off. Ta'veta made a quick nod then walked off to his room.

Ak'shara sighed and strode off to his quarters.

His room was fairly big in size, enough so that if he wanted, he could jump around. On the right wall coming in, was his trophy rack. All of them had been hard earned kills. A dozen ooman skulls lined both sides. One he was particularly fond of was one on the right with its lower jaw missing. It had been from an ooman that had led a band of others and fought against other oomans. He had observed the ooman fighting another band of oomans wearing blue clothing. The ooman had been fairly successful in his hunts. That is until Ak'shara ripped off his skull.

On the inner sides of the trophy wall were his serpent trophies. About a dozen of them. In the middle was his prized trophy. The skull of the unblooded that had dared to attack him.

He'd remembered impaling the fool with his glaive, then slicing open his throat and ripping out his skull by the spine, such a nice memory.

He dismissed the thought; he should be doing something useful, instead of daydreaming like a pup. He walked past the metal slab that was his bed and towards the wall opposite to his trophy rack.

There he stood in front of his weapon rack.

(He has a lot of racks...that sounded wrong.)

He observed the wide selection of weapons, and then began to take his favorites.  
His personally customized glaive, a staff like weapon with large razor sharp blades on both ends, made of a near unbreakable black alloy. His shuriken, a deadly disks with multiple curved blades. Thrown for powerful cutting power.  
His burner, his most powerful weapon, accurate and deadly.  
His wrist blades, one for each arm, both 6 inch long, jagged blades of death.

After selecting his weapons he walked to his mask rack.

He replaced the one he had worn to meet the elder in its appropriate spot. It was a silver mask with an intricate design reminiscent of the old ones. It was a bit too flashy for his taste. (Ancient Mask) He selected his favorite mask, a terrifying design. (Celtic) The mask had three scars across it; he had received them from hunting serpents.

He personally though they added to the already menacing visage. He placed it onto his face and let it comfortably rest on his face.

He then went about putting on his armor, covering the right side of his chest, his shoulders and shins.

He did a quick maintenance check on all of his equipment, and then headed out.  
As he walked out, Ta'veta walked out of his own room. He wore a mask that resembled the face of a serpent. (Serpent hunter) In his right hand he carried his most prized possession, his war hammer. A large staff with a large hammer head on the end, it was even taller than Ta'veta. The rod was purely metal; the hammerhead had been carved to resemble the skull of a large lizard like creature native to their home world. (Think T-rex)

They gave each other a quick nod, and then walked off towards the ship. As they walked, La'hiem walked out of his room. He wore a standard mask (jungle hunter) and carried his own custom burners. He wore two, both slightly bigger than standard burners that Ak'shara and Ta'veta wore.

He gave a quick nod, and then joined them as they walked towards the ship.  
Ak'shara could feel the tension in the air as his comrades gave off a powerful musk. He smiled at their eagerness.  
The hunt would soon begin.

Welcome to Washington D.C, or whats left of it.  
Nevada was one of the states to be hit, not by nukes, but a missile barrage. Leaving the once proud city in an utter state of disrepair. Most buildings were still standing, but there were plenty that had pieces blown off and turned into rubble. Though plenty of places had been turned into barren wastelands that were completely devoid of all life.

Yet, even through all this, people lived on. Many people became raiders, preying on the weak and banding together. Some people had even started up settlements; one that was particularly successful was called Willardton, on account that it was more or less built around the Willard Hotel. Most people however, wandered around aimlessly, just trying to survive and not get eaten by the bugs.

But even in post apocolyptia, people have trouble doing business.

This was such a case with Anna.

"Three barrels of gas," said the redneck American.

"I asked for five," Anna replied stubbornly.

"And I'm telling you I'm offering three," said the man, spitting on the ground.

Anna sighed; she was never good at bargaining with people. Even less so with Americans. Ever since human government had all but crumbled into oblivion, Anna had become a mercenary. She hired herself out to anyone that could pay. By pay, she meant give her things to use. Who needed money these days?

"Look lady, just cause you got big guns on that car of yours, don't think that means you're the only person I can hire," said the big man."There are plenty of other people out there who would kill their friends for three barrels of gas. So I suggest you take it."

"Fuck you American!" She shouted, she was sick and tired of him.  
The man glared at her, then spit on the ground.

"I suggest you take that back right now missy, otherwise I'm gonna get real unpleasant with ya."

"You already are," she shot back.

The man pulled back his hand and tried to back hand her. It was almost laughable; she grabbed the man by his outstretched wrist, catching him off guard. She twisted his arm around to an uncomfortable position, then kicked leg from under him, causing him to fall face first into the ground.

"5 barrels," she said, kneeling down by the fat man, "take it or leave it."

"Alright! Fine! You win!" He screeched through the pain.

He attempted to stand up, pitifully rolling on his fat back. Anna snorted in amusement then walked off to inform her comrades that she had successfully gotten the job.

She walked past the makeshift convoy. The fat man, Luther, was a trader. He brought things from one settlement to another, trading things back and forth. In addition, he provided transportation for those who could afford it.

The convoy consisted of a bright yellow school bus, a purple van, and a red Toyota. Modified with barbed wire covering the outside, as well as metal spikes. It also had metal bars covering the windows, a smart move to keep bugs out.  
The van had been modified with layers of sheet metal welded onto the car for extra protection.

The Toyota had been given a similar treatment. At the very back of the convoy sat her ride, an American Stryker. She had taken it after the entire world decided to commit nuclear suicide. Leaning on the Stryker was one of her partners, an oriental man they called Yinyang. They called him that because no one could pronounce his Chinese name correctly. He was slightly taller than she was, (she's 5'9) and around his thirties. His sideburns had began to slightly grey, he had a serious face and a near buzz cut to match it. He wore a dress shirt with a black jacket on top and a pair of cargo pants.

He was a rather secluded member of the group, usually hanging by himself. He never said much but when he did, it was usually something useful.

"We get job?"He asked when he noticed she was approaching. She nodded.

"That is good, we low on gas." he said in his heavy accent.

"Don't worry; I got us five barrels of gas. That'll keep us for another five weeks."  
He nodded approvingly. He followed her to the back of the Stryker. There she saw her other companion, Bear.

"You got the job?"He asked, looking up from his cigarette. She nodded.

"Good, I thought I might have to go over there and take care of negotiations myself."

"I have plenty of negotiation skills thank you," she replied.

"Yes, that was good negotiating when you broke that mans arm last week."

"He was asking for it."

"You over reacted, you could have simply said no."

Anna was about to respond when suddenly a projectile flew from the top of the Stryker, she jumped out of the way just in time to miss getting hit by a flying wrench.

"Sorry!" shouted a voice from on top the vehicle.

A small girl with a red base ball cap and shoulder length brown hair popped her head into view.

"Is everyone okay down there?"

"Trip! What have I told you about throwing tools?"Asked Anna scoldingly.

"Uh...Don't?"

"Exactly, so why did you throw the tool just now?"

"It slipped! Honest!"

Anna sighed. Trip was the team's 16 year old mechanic. They had found her and her father in an old chop shop while they were looking around for spare parts. The bugs attacked and well, Trip ended up with them. She was a whiz when it came to cars but she was a little bit awkward when it came to handling people.

"Just get down here; we're leaving in a few minutes," commanded Bear.

"O-okay, just give me a sec," she said, she gracefully jumped down from the top of the Stryker."I-I fixed the turret like you asked me to Anna."

"Good girl," she said, giving her a small pat on the head.

"C-can I drive?"Asked Trip, putting on her best toothy smile.

"No."

"P-please!"

"No."

"W-why not?"

"Because the last time I let you drive you crashed us into a building. On top of that it was filled with bugs."

"I-it was an accident! I-i swear! B-besides, Yinyang's been teaching me. I-i'll do better!"

Anna glared at Yinyang accusingly; he shrugged and walked into the Stryker.

"No, that's final."

"A-awww man!"Shouted Trip, stomping angrily into the car.

Anna sighed and stared into the blue sky. Suddenly a huge gust of wind blew across her face, she squinted as the sky seemed to shimmer and move. She rubbed her eyes, and took another look. Nothing.

"Damn heat must be screwing with me," she muttered.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Guardian Angels

"Alright you lazy asses, what've you got for me this time?"Conner Asked.

"We got lots boss," said Bob, a large bald man with quite a few missing teeth and a serious hygiene problem.

He carried a large cloth sack over his shoulder and flung it onto Conner's desk, spilling out the contents. Conner searched through the various things that Bob had brought him. A few books, various articles of clothing, a wrist watch and a pack of batteries. One thing in particular caught his attention.

"What's this?"He asked, picking up a cylindrical object made of metal.

"Don't know boss," said Bob dumbly, "butt its shiny, so I thought you might like it."

"Hmmm, probably some heirloom or something," he said, but Bob had been right, being the boss of an entire raider gang had its benefits. One of those benefits was being able to enjoy the luxuries in life. He slipped the cylinder into his pocket for later.

"Well Bob," he started, placing his hands behind his head and leaning back in his chair."You did well, not you're best, but pretty good. Go ahead and get yourself some water, some pussy, and some nice warm food."

Bob licked his lips and smiled a toothy grin, though some of his teeth were missing, then happily turned around.

Part of being a boss was keeping your subordinates happy. This is why he rewarded good work with clean water and good food, as well as a little something extra from the whores he owned.

Conner was living it large compared to the rest of the world. He had a safe place to hide, a rough and tough gang to keep the bugs at bay and plenty of water and food. His base of operations was in a series of caves, at the very center of which was a fresh water spring. People came to him for protection and shelter; in turn they worked for him. Life had been good to him.

"Boss," said one of his guards, disturbing his thoughts.

"What is it," he growled.

"One of our boys just spotted a convoy," replied the guard sheepishly.

"Well, you know what to do." 

Dust billowed over the plain as the convoy tore across the ground. Anna's Stryker followed diligently along with the convoy, taking a position outside of it on the right. Bear had taken the wheel and was casually driving along the dirt, only a few rocks or bumps disturbed the peace inside the heavily armored vehicle.

YinYang was topside manning the high caliber machine gun. Trip was busy tinkering with her latest invention; she said it was some sort of automatic punch knife.  
Anna sat quietly in the passenger seat next to bear, cradling her PKM light machine gun.

The inside of the vehicle was the source of much envy. It war rather spacious, big enough that two people could walk past each other without bumping. It also contained a large selection of weapons, one that was the envy of any person in post apocolyptia. Most of the weapons had never even been used, and crates of ammo were stacked to the ceiling. There was also a large supply of food and water, something not everyone had in this day and age.

But that didn't mean that they didn't have to work, having all been part of an army and being in a hostile environment filled with things that wanted to kill people, it was inevitable that they take up work as mercenaries.

This job was simple. Escort the convoy to the settlements, preferably in one piece, and then get paid. The convoy was in pretty good shape. Each vehicle had a minimum of two armed guards. They were moving at a steady pace so not much would be able to catch them.

Michael Jackson's "Beat it" played on a stereo in the back.

"This is vehicle one," piped someone over the walkie talkie they'd been given. Anna picked it up and replied, "What is it?"

"The boys are seeing some sort of dust cloud out to the right, could be raiders, over."

Anna whipped out her binoculars; she scanned the area towards the dust clouds the guys had been talking about. Sure enough, raiders. There were about a dozen raiders on motorcycles, all hooting like wild animals. There were also three jeeps and one dune buggy.

"Convoy," she spoke into the walkie talkie, "We've defiantly got trouble, looks like a bunch of raiders. They're armed."

"With what?" asked someone.

"Looks like some have guns, some have melee weapons. They're probably gonna try and jump onto the vehicles."

"All right people, this is what we're paid to do, get ready!" shouted someone.

Anna flicked of the safety of her LMG (light machine gun).

"You hear that YinYang!" she asked,

"Yes!" He shouted back.

Bear upholstered this Vz 61 Skorpion and flicked off the switch. The middle aged Russian's face turned into a statue, hardened for what was to come.

In the back, Trip took out her M1911, she wasn't a stranger to killing but she usually abstained. But sometimes she just didn't' have that luxury.

"Hey! There's another group of them coming from the left!" shouted someone.

"This is a god damn army, must be Boss Conner!"

"Who?" asked someone

"A local raider boss, this is his turf!"

"Shit!" shouted another.

The raiders from the right were only a dozen meters away, their screams and shouts ringing over the roar of their motors.

Anna rolled down the window, aimed her PKM, and opened fire.  
The heavy gun spewed out a stream of bullets, Anna expertly sprayed the incoming raiders with an unrelenting storm, and the roar of her machine gun drowned out any noise.

Immediately raiders began to tumble off their vehicles, the ones placed on motorcycles were the first to fall. Their bodies jerked as the heavy hitting rounds tore through their bodies, an entire column of eight motorcyclists were eliminated and Anna still had half a clip left.

Above she could hear YinYang open up with the heavy machine gun, the rounds chewed through one of the jeeps meager plating's, turning the inside of the jeep into a blood bath. The jeep swerved out of control as its driver took multiple rounds to the chest; he lost control and slammed into a pair of cyclists that were foolish enough to ride next to it.

Two of the cyclists managed to maneuver behind their vehicle and onto their left. The opened fire with their pistols, the heavy plating held, leaving no more than a few scratches. Seeing that their attack was having no effect, they sped up and lined themselves up with the driver's window. They raised their guns too late.  
Bear whipped out his Skorpion, he jammed down on the trigger. The sudden storm of bullets peppered their bodies. They tumbled of their bikes and fell off into the distance.

The remaining raiders were cut down by the combined fire of the guards and their machine gun support. One managed to escape the hail of bullets and lined himself up with the Stryker; he jumped off his bike and latched himself onto Anna's window, big mistake. She pulled back her elbow and viciously smashed it into his nose. He screamed in pain as his nose bent into an unnatural angle, she pulled out her side arm and stuck it under his chin and pulled the trigger. Bits of brain flew out of his head, his lifeless fingers lost their grip and he tumbled onto the road.

Ak'shara quietly observed the oomans from his vantage point in the cliffs. Four vehicles drove across the barren plains, other oomans had attacked them, most unsuccessfully he might add. The oomans in the vehicle on the outside of the line deserved special commendation. They fought with the skill of many; they were like a fortress defending against rain.

The trio of hunters watched in amusement as the oomans attacking from the right were mercilessly defeated.

"They fight well," commented

"They're shots could use some work," said L'hiem.

"Its a shame we're here to hunt one of our own, they would have made good prey," said Ak'shara. His mask told him a total of four oomans were in the vehicle, not unlike them.

"Brothers, look," said Ta'veta, drawing their attention to the wave of oomans attacking the left of the convoy.

"Just more oomans," shrugged L'hiem.

"No, watch the ground," corrected Ta'veta, pointing towards the small hills rising from the flat plain.

Suddenly a serpent popped out from the ground, jumping into the air and latching itself onto one of the oomans riding a two wheeled vehicle. The other ooman's looked around in confusion. Suddenly another jumped from the ground, then another and another, each taking an ooman to the ground.  
Soon the entire wave of ooman attackers had been decimated by a horde of serpents.  
"Ah, now we see the true potential of these ooman warriors," said L'hiem in anticipation. 

The vehicle containing the four ooman warriors swerved around the back of the line and onto the left side of the line.  
Ak'shara leaned over, this would be interesting. 

"Bugs!" shouted someone over the walkie talkie.

"No shit!" Anna shouted back. Bear had placed them on the left side of the convoy.

She watched as the raiders were mercilessly torn to pieces by the black forms of the bugs. She could hear the screams of one raider as he futilely attempted to crawl away, only to have his hopes dashed as a bug jumped on his back and tore out his neck.

"YinYang!"

YinYang swerved the heavy machine gun towards the mass of bugs and opened fire. The rounds blew apart the bugs like pieces of paper, grabbing their attention from the raiders they'd just slaughtered. They jumped off their kills and started galloping towards the convoy. Dozen's died as the turret strafed across their lines, but new ones simply popped out from the ground.

Anna propped her machine gun across Bear's chest and jammed down on the trigger. The stream of bullets did little to deter the oncoming tide, by now the horde was only a few meters away from the convoy.

"Shit, oh shit!" shouted someone.

"Trip! Take the passenger's seat, Bear! Open the back door!" she commanded.

Trip nodded and grabbed her duel M1911 pistols and rode shotgun. The top portion of the back of the Stryker opened up, Anna propped her machine gun on the lower flap, using it to stabilize her aim. Already some bugs were tailing their back; the deceptively fast bugs were a force to be reckoned with.

She resisted the urge to simply spray and pray and forced herself to aim her bursts of fire. Each burst drowned a drone in its blood, spewing its acidic liquid on the ground. To her right she could see some of the drones jump on the bus, easily maneuvering around the metal spikes. The guards did their best to shoot them off but were having trouble.

"Trip! Help them!"

Trip took aim with her hand guns and opened fire. Taking down multiple drones in quick succession, the horde soon seemed to droop back.

"I think their giving up!" shouted someone.

"Maybe," said another.

Suddenly a loud screech tore through the sudden silence.

"Praetorian!" shouted YinYang. Anna stretched her head outside to see that he was right. A bug, three times the size of a simple drone dashed across the open plain behind them. Its steps seemed to shake the very ground itself.

"Aw shit! We're all gonna die!" cried someone. 

YinYang swung the turret around and jammed on the trigger. The Praetorian shook its head as it shrugged off bullets, the high caliber rounds left small indentations across its large crest.

"Keep firing!"Commanded Anna, she jammed on the trigger of her gun, the gun sounded like a lawn mower as it chewed through the ammo.

Suddenly it clicked, empty. She tossed it to the ground and swung around to the weapon racks. She grabbed an RPG off the wall, she shouldered it and took aim.  
The oversized bug screeched, and she pulled the trigger. The rocket flew through the air and impacted against its head, it detonated and tore the thing to bloody ribbons.

Pieces of bug rained down on the ground, still hot from the explosion.

***  
"Impressive," observed Ak'shara,

"They may just be ooman, but they are quite capable," admitted L'hiem.

"I would like to hunt them; they seem like worth trophies." said Ta'veta,

"Perhaps another time," said Ak'shara."Has the scanner picked up anything?"

L'hiem turned to the antenna like device they had stuck in the ground. He typed in a few keys onto its pad, and then turned back.

"It has found a reading, its faint but it's there." he said proudly.

"Good, we move, quickly," he commanded.

"Perhaps this hunt will not be as long as I believed," said Ta'veta.

"Don't get your hopes up," said Ak'shara.

"Be more eager," urged L'hiem, "this is a great thing we are doing."  
Ak'shara didn't reply.

L'hiem clicked his mandibles, the Yaujta equivalent to a shrug.

"Hold up!" shouted someone.

The convoy came to a halt in front of what looked like a gate made out of scrap metal. It blocked the small opening in the canyon they had rolled into.  
Their employer stepped out from his vehicle and talked with the man sitting on top of the gate. Suddenly the gateman pulled out a pistol and shot their employer.  
Gun fire suddenly ringed through the canyon as bandits sprung from their concealed positions in the rocks.

Anna opened fire with her machine gun; YinYang brought the turret around and tore up the mountain side.

The driver of the bus must have panicked because he stomped down on the gas and tore right through the flimsy gate.

Somewhere among the rocks a raider fired an RPG. It flew across the battlefield and struck the minivan, detonating and blowing it to smithereens.

Raiders tumbled off the rocks as the combined fire of the trio spread across their ranks. Dust flew into the air, screams echoed throughout the canyon. One by one the raiders fell to the trio's bullets.

Soon, all the last of the raiders lay dead.

"That went well," commented Bear.

"Oooh, something shiny!" said Trip, she jumped out the passenger seat and dashed towards a raider's corpse. She grabbed a small coin off the floor and held it to her chest.

Suddenly a raider jumped out of the rocks and grabbed trip by her hair and shoved a pistol to her head.  
Anna, Bear and YinYang bailed from the Stryker and whipped out their guns.

"Drop her!" shouted Anna,

"If you don't want to die I suggest you put your weapons down," said a voice.  
They turned to see a man dressed in a suit up in the rocks, multiple raiders surrounding him.

"Boss Connor I presume," said Anna,

"Ah, you've heard of me," said Connor arrogantly."Please put down your weapons, I do hate to kill women."

Bear and YinYang looked towards Anna for instruction.

Hesitantly, Anna laid her weapons on the ground, Bear and YinYang followed.

"Very good," said Connor happily. He walked down from his position and down onto the road."You there, open it up."He commanded one of his men, pointing at the Stryker.

The man walked towards the door and grabbed the handle, he jerked on it and, nothing. He jerked on it again, and again with increasing intensity.  
Bear smirked at the raider's futile attempt.

"Its locked boss," said the raider.

"Well open it up you dumbass!" shouted Connor impatiently. The bandit pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the window, he pulled the trigger. The bullet impacted the glass and immediately ricocheted off and imbedded it into his skull. He crumpled to the floor, dead.

"Won't get it open that way," said YinYang.

"Then you open it," said Connor devilishly, "or your pretty little friend is gonna have her brains splattered all over the ground."

"No," said Anna bluntly.

"Do it, or else," he said again.

"You kill any of us, you'll never get it open. Its code locked, each of us knows one number. You kill one of us and the code is lost forever," he explained. Connor snorted, and then motioned for his men to take them away.

Ak'shara and his brothers strode through the caverns like ghosts, their cloaking devices bending light to their will. They had followed the tracking device to the signal. L'hiem claimed the device homed in on Yautja technology, the bad blood may be a criminal but he still knew how to use weapons.

"Are we there yet?" asked Ta'veta,

"We are close," responded L'hiem. They continued walking on, suddenly they heard voices, ooman voices.

Bob stood at his guard post in the large cavern. He held his assault rifle close to his chest, swaying from foot to foot and casually smoking a cigarette.

Guard duty was boring but it was better the field work. He had just heard that a couple of mercenaries had taken out nearly 50 guys, Bob wasn't smart but that was almost half the gang. On top of that the Boss didn't get any loot from them, something about a lock.

But it didn't affect Bob, he was a guard and he was going to stay here and do his job. He looked down at his feet, and then noticed three red dots on his chest. He tried to brush them off but found that he couldn't, he stared as the three red dots traveled up his chest and onto his forehead.

There was a flash of blue and then darkness.

L'hiem stood admiringly over his kill, his burner had punched a hole straight through the ooman's head.

"It seems we are not alone in here," said Ak'shara.

"More fun for us," said Ta'veta as he slung his hammer of his back.

"What do you think they're doing here?"

"Perhaps the badblood is hunting them," suggested L'hiem.

"Perhaps," he repeated, "prepare for battle."

The four friends were handcuffed and brought into the raider base camp. A series of winding tunnels inside the mountain, completely hidden from the outside world.

Anna could see why Connor had been so successful; he had found the perfect base of operations. He controlled a large water supply with his gang; people would have to respect him in order to get any water. It was a brilliant plan.  
The four of them were taken to Connor's desk, where he currently sat behind.

"I don't suppose you've reconsidered giving me the code," he asked, no response."I figured as much."

"Ya know, most of these men haven't seen women in a while," he said devilishly.

Anna tried to ignore the leering gazes of the men around her, she had a slim athletic build. She could tell they wanted her, being beautiful in this age was somewhat of a curse, but so was being a woman.

"I could let them loose on you and your pretty little friend," continued Connor, "but if you give me the code, I might reconsider."

"Fuck you," she said.

"Really?"he said, he motioned for her guard to pull her up.

He roughly pulled her up onto her feet. Another raider walked over to her and pulled out a knife. She remained emotionless as he walked on over to her and held the knife to her neck. He slid it down to her stomach and moved his face in closer. He stuck out his tongue and drew it over her neck.

Suddenly she brought her knee up and into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. She followed up by kicking his lowered face, knocking out a few teeth and sending him curling on the ground in pain.

"Oooh, tough girl," scoffed Connor.

He motioned one of his guards towards her, a big bald man with a thick mustache. He grabbed the fallen raider's knife and sunk it into his friend, killing him instantly. He then began to walk towards Trip, Anna's eyes widened with fear. She could see Trip was on the brink of crying. The big man grabbed Trip by the neck and roughly pulled her up onto her feet. He slid the knife to her chest and cruel cut her shirt open, revealing her bra. She whimpered as he ripped off her shirt, a few of the raiders chuckled.

"Stop it!"shouted Anna, the big man whipped around to face her. He let go of Trip and walked over to Anna, knife raised and ready to go.

He brought it to her neck and asked," you afraid?"

"Not of a dickless gay wad like you," she taunted. A few of the raiders chuckled at the remark, the man's face turned red with anger.

"I'll show you dickless," he said, moving to remove his pants.

Anna braced herself.

Suddenly, the man went rigid and his eyes widened, two bloody streaks simply appeared on his chest, his shirt tore as two invisible blades tore out his chest. Suddenly he was lifted clean off the floor, blood dripping off his body.

The raider's and Conner watched in horror as their friend floated in the air, dangling helplessly. Suddenly whatever had picked him up dropped him onto the floor with a heavy thud. A raider dropped to the floor as a blue bolt of energy tore a hole through his chest.

There was a sound of unsheathing metal, the raiders fired wildly at the unseen enemies.

Invisible blades sliced across their bodies, tearing them to bloody ribbons, men were lifted off the ground, and limbs were hacked off. But no one could see the attackers.  
Anna fell to the floor as some unseen force pushed against her.

Another bolt of energy tore open a man's chest. A raider suddenly fell to the ground as some unseen force smashed against him, breaking his spine.

What was going on?

Ak'shara whipped his glaive around in a deadly arc, slicing off an ooman's head. He turned to another and impaled the ooman with his glaive then mercilessly tore it out. The ooman's wildly fired their weapons, hopelessly blind to the hunters assault. Ak'shara whipped out with his wristblades and slashed them across an ooman's throat, he turned to the one next to it and cut him in half with his glaive.

Ta'veta swung his hammer with deadly speed, he crushed an ooman against the wall, then swung around and broke another's back with a might swing. He tripped on with a low swing then brought it up and smashed it down on the ooman's chest.  
L'hiem fired his burner with deadly accuracy, each shot killing his opponent, he grabbed an ooman and pulled it into his wrist blades. Then spun around and burned another with a shot through the head.

Ak'shara was a flow of endless motion, he jumped and he ran, he swung and he jabbed. Never did he stop his movement, he leaped through the air and jabbed his glaive down into an ooman's chest, he spun around and swung his glaive like a pendulam, taking another's head clean off. He continued his spin and thrust the back blade into another ooman's chest, he targeted an ooman that was trying to escape and shot it with his burner. He rushed another and jabbed his wristblades into its chest, lifted it off the ground and through it into it's comrades. 

large ooman came in carrying two large weapons, he screamed and fired the wildly. Ak'shara ducked as the weapon fired it's projectiles just right over his head. The ooman was unrelenting in its assault, screaming its war cry like a true warrior. But as powerful as the ooman might be, he was not powerful enough.  
Ak'shara ran swiftly around the perimeter of the cavern, the ooman must have noticed his presence because he began to fire towards Ak'shara. Ak'shara aimed his burner and fired, the bolt of blue energy tore off the large ooman's arm. The ooman screamed in pain, blood fountained out of his missing appendage.

Ak'shara was on him in a moment, he thrust his glaive head first into the ooman's stomach, then lifted him up, letting him slide down it's shaft. Ak'shara unsheathed the wrist blades on his right arm. With a single jab he sunk the blades into the ooman's chest. He dug through the ooman's chest, reaching his hand into the ooman's innards. He deactivated his cloak and let the ooman gaze upon his executioner. He felt the hard material of the ooman's spine; he grasped it and tore it out in a single fluid motion.

The whole battle lasted only a few minutes. By the end of it, the ooman warriors lay dead. Many decapitated, smashed, or burned. Blood painted the walls of the cavern, making the whole place glow an eerie red. Body parts lay everywhere, separated from the main body, it was a beautiful scene. 

The four mercenaries stared wide eyed at the carnage. Anna herself was still trying to comprehend what the hell had just happened. It looked like jack the ripper had been here with a gang. The raiders lay all over the cavern floor in bits and pieces.  
She watched in horror as figure suddenly materialized out of thin air, he reached into a raider's chest and yanked out the spine with the skull still attached.

The man slid the raider's dead body off his spear like weapon; he held the skull up as if inspecting it. Then he roared an ear shattering cry, signaling his victory.  
Anna spotted a knife the raiders had dropped and desperately tried to crawl over to it, fearing that they would be next on this man's murder list.

Suddenly, a pair of scaly, taloned feet appeared in front of her. She stared up to see the man that had killed the raiders, staring right down at her. 

Ak'shara stared down at the slim ooman, he recognized it as one of the oomans that had fought the serpents and fought well. Ta'veta and L'hiem declocked behind him.

"What are you doing?" asked L'hiem,

"This is one of the oomans that fought like a true warrior," he explained gesturing to the ooman at his feet.

"What do we do?" asked Ta'veta, " we can't kill them, they are bound."

"We let them go," said Ak'shara.

"What?"

"What?"

"We let them go," he repeated, "they are of no threat to us. They are true warriors and deserved to be hunted. Not killed like animals. We will release them and let them loose on the world. Some day, we may be able to hunt them."

"Very well," said Ta'veta, accepting the decision.

"Sounds reasonable," said L'hiem.

Ak'shara sheathed his glaive and let his wristblades shoot out. The ooman's eyes widened, it hastily tried to crawl back, obviously believing Ak'shara meant to kill it. Ak'shara sighed and grabbed the ooman by the shoulder; it squirmed in an attempt to shake him off, but failed.

In a single motion he lopped of the ooman's restraints, freeing its hands. The ooman immediately stopped struggling stared at its now free hands.  
His brothers went about doing the same. The ooman's rubbed their wrists and stared at their saviors.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Home, Sweet Home

For what seemed like the longest moment in the entire universe, the Oomans and the hunters simply stood still. Both parties observing the other, waiting to see what would happen. Naturally, Trip was the first to break the silence in the most awkward way possible.

"Oooooooh! Shiny!" she said in awe, her eyes growing wide at the sight of the alien's technology.

She scurried across the ground over to the shortest alien and grabbed his wrist with both of her hands. Her eyes scanned over the wrist gadget like she was reading a book, her face filled with fascination. The hunter simply stared down at the small Ooman, his head tilted to the side in curiosity. This was not the reaction he had expected to get out of an Ooman; she seemed to have no fear of him what so ever.

The hunter decided to toy with the Ooman a bit, he lifted his arm away. Trip immediately darted to where he had moved it. He moved it again and she followed. Next he moved it up to his chest, which was a good bit above Trip's head. She jumped up and hung from it like a monkey.

"I think it likes you," said L'hiem, a small chuckle in his voice.

Ak'shara shot him a glare, L'hiem shrugged and turned away. Ta'veta walked over to the Ooman hanging on Ak'shara's arm, carefully observing the creature.

"Such a small build, how do they fight without breaking into a thousand pieces?" he asked aloud.

"I don't know!" replied Ak'shara, "why are you asking me?"

Ta'veta took a moment to try and understand what he had said wrong. After a few moments of thinking he realized his error.

"Oh, sorry."

"Forget it," said Ak'shara as he returned his attention to the Ooman still hanging from his appendage.

She still seemed entranced by his wrist computer; she desperately tried to use her weight to bring his arm down lower so that she could get a better look. It was a futile attempt; to Ak'shara the Ooman might as well have been a small rodent. He did find it somewhat amusing that she was so dedicated to her cause.

When Anna could finally register that she existed again, she immediately yelled, "Trip, get down right now!"

"B-but why?"She asked, still hanging onto the alien's arm.

"Because that's dangerous! You saw what they did to all those men!"

"B-but he's not hurting me! I think he's fine with me right now!"

"Trip, I think Anna is right, we don't know what they might do," said Bear.

"B-but he has such shiny stuff! I-I could learn so much from them!"

"Just let go already!" demanded Anna,

"Or do you want to end up like the man in his hands!" she said, pointing at the still blood covered skull and spinal cord in the alien's left hand. It still had chunks of flesh imbedded between its spines and undoubtedly the brain was still resting in the skull.

"B-but he was a bad guy! H-he deserved to get his skull ripped out!" she pointed out, "B-besides, were not bad guys and if he wanted to I'm sure he could have killed us by now."

Anna sighed, sometimes Trip was simply too smart for her own good. Though Anna had to admit that she had a point. The trio of aliens had just massacred two dozen men in a matter of minutes; if they wanted to they could have killed them as well.

"I do not believe they wish to harm us," said YinYang.

"S-see! I-if YinYang says they're not a threat then it must be true!"

Anna shot YinYang a glare; he ignored her and simply started to stand up.

From the corner of the cave, they could hear the sound of struggling and many curses. Both alien and humans turned to see what was causing all the commotion. When they did, they saw that it was one of the aliens behind Boss Conner's desk. And just under the desk was Boss Conner himself, swinging at the alien with a piece of wood.

Ak'shara turned to see L'hiem standing behind some sort of human furniture; at least he thought it was furniture. Under the furniture an Ooman swung at L'hiem's legs, futilely trying to drive the hunter away. The sad thing was that L'hiem wasn't even doing anything to begin with; he was simply standing a few feet from the cowering Ooman.

"L'hiem, what are you doing?" asked Ak'shara,

"Well you know the signal we came to find?" replied L'hiem as he pressed a few buttons on his wrist computer.

"Yes,"

"It's coming from this Ooman down here,"

"What? Check it again!"

"I did check it again, and the readings are clear," replied L'hiem, "Why would you think I misread?"

"I don't know!"

"Just trust me, I'm trustworthy."

"Fine," said Ak'shara, putting the small Ooman down on the ground.

As he began to walk away, the Ooman tugged back, still firmly latched onto his arm. It stared up at him with large brown eyes, eyes that he himself saw everyday he looked in the mirror. He tried to walk away again but the Ooman was persistent and continued hanging on. No matter how much he tugged, it tugged right back.

Ak'shara sighed, the last thing he needed right now was for some Ooman to get attached to him. Not just because it would impede his ability to fight, but because he didn't want to get attached to it. The Ooman part of him urged him to open himself up to the other Oomans; the Yautja side of him urged him to rip out their skulls.

Suddenly one of the Ooman's companions grabbed the Ooman from behind and attempted to drag her away. The small creature remained as adamant as ever.

Behind him Ta'veta let out a muffled chuckle.

Having had enough of this humiliating game, he tore the Ooman's hand from his wrist and grabbed her by the shoulders. Letting her look into his blank mask. He pointed a taloned finger at her, then at the ground. She seemed reluctant at first, but eventually nodded.

Ak'shara spun on his heel and walked over to L'hiem.

"You talk to the now?" asked L'hiem,

"Shut your mouth!" he growled.

"Can you teach me?" asked Ta'veta,

"I said shut your mouth!" growled Ak'shara again.

"But I really wanted to learn," said Ta'veta, his head hanging low.

Anna was relieved when the alien had taken the initiative and stopped Trip. Now she just stood in one spot and hummed a merry tune to herself.

"Trip? Are you alright?" she asked.

"Y-yup!"

Anna sighed, the girl didn't even notice her cut open top, it was like she had completely forgotten.

"Here," she said, taking off her jacket and handing it to the girl, "you might want to cover yourself up."

As if noticing for the first time, Trip squealed and quickly put on the jacket.

"We should get going," said Bear from behind them.

"Agreed, but we have a problem. There are probably more raiders out there; we'll need to fight our way through."

"M-maybe we could ask them to help us out!" suggested Trip, pointing to the trio of aliens that seemed to be bickering. At least, she thought it was bickering.

"I don't think we can overcome the language barrier," she said, "lets just grab some weapons and ammo of the dead, we'll work our way out and be home free."

Bear nodded and walked away to inform YinYang.

"I-I wonder…." Said Trip quietly to herself,

"What?"

"O-oh, just wondering why they would want a skull," explained Trip, pointing to the bloody skull attached to the shortest alien's belt.

"Who cares?" replied Anna, and then walked off to grab some weapons.

The pitiful Ooman swung at them with a piece of wood, it made a series of primitive sounds as it tried to drive them away. It would be amusing if it weren't so annoying. As the Ooman swung at them again, Ta'veta stepped on the wood, depriving it of a weapon.

It tried to make a run for it but Ta'veta quickly grabbed it by the collar of its clothing and lifted it into the air.

"You're sure the source is coming from it?" asked Ak'shara.

"Yes! How many times must I say it!" shouted L'hiem indignantly.

Ak'shara shook his head; he cycled through his vision filters until his vision was filled with an electric green color. He scanned the Ooman, trying to find what was making the Ooman give off the signal. His mask indicated something in the Ooman's right pocket was giving of the signal; Ak'shara reached in and pulled out the object.

"What is it?" asked L'hiem,

"It's a spear."

"What?"

"The bad blood's spear. That's what was giving off the signal," realized Ak'shara.

"How did the Ooman get it?" asked Ta'veta as he held the still squirming Ooman.

"The bad blood must have dropped it. Argh! We went through all this for nothing!"

Ak'shara let out a roar of fury, the Ooman in Ta'veta's grasp squealed in terror.

"What do we do about the Ooman?" asked Ta'veta, holding up the squirming creature up even further.

"Let it go, not worth killing."

Ta'veta obeyed and dropped the human onto the ground. It quickly scurried back to its hiding place and curled up into a ball.

Ak'shara snorted, "Pathetic."

"What will we do now? Another scan?"

"I don't know," said Ak'shara truthfully, "let's just get back outside, we'll figure it out then."

His companion's nodded in agreement. Both of them kept their distance as their leader started to walk away, he was especially dangerous when he was angry.

As soon as the alien let loose its roar, the humans dropped into a defensive crouch. Anna watched as the tallest let Boss Conner down and let him scurry away. She held her stolen shotgun close to her chest, the lead alien looked mighty pissed off.

The trio strode away from the desk, walking right past the humans as if they weren't even there. Only when Trip gripped onto the alien's wrist again did they stop.

The aliens topped and looked down at the young girl as she went back to examining its wrist computer. Anna feared that the alien might lash out and break the fragile female in half. But no such thing ever happened; instead it let the girl hold on to his wrist.

"Do you think that is safe?" asked Bear, walking up to her with a stolen MP5.

"I think so," said Anna, "I don't know why, but I have this feeling that the creature will not harm her."

"I agree," said YinYang, walking up with a salvaged FN FAL.

The creature continued to put up with Trip's antics, even going as far as to extend its wrist blades for her. Trip giggled at the engineering marvel, her head passing up and down the equipment.

Eventually the alien withdrew and motioned for its comrades to follow. The trio walked out of the exit of the cave, Trip following along.

"Trip!" shouted Bear,

She turned around, a merry look on her face. Bear turned for Anna to say something, obviously anticipating that Anna would have done so anyway.

Part of Anna wanted to tell Trip not to follow, but for some reason she stopped herself. Instead she handed Trip a MAC-10 they had scavenged off the dead. Trip smiled and nodded in appreciation, then skipped after the trio of aliens.

"Crazy kid," muttered Anna, and then motioned for her friends to follow.

She was following them, Ak'shara could feel it. He didn't want to turn around, he didn't want to give her the satisfaction that he acknowledged her presence, but he had to. He turned his head ever so slightly to get a look behind him, she was there. The Ooman skipped along behind them, a strange sound coming out of its mouth. It sounded like it had a melody, probably a song of some sort.

As soon as she noticed he'd turned around, she gave him a wave. He quickly turned back, silently cursing himself.

"Why is it following us?" asked L'hiem,

"I don't know!" growled Ak'shara.

"Can we keep it?" asked Ta'veta

"What?"

"Can we keep it?" he repeated,

"NO!"

"Why not?"

"Because we don't need the extra trouble! We're on an important mission from the Elder and need TO STAY FOCUSED!"

"So you really mean no?"

"Yes!"

"Yes?"

"NO!"

"YesNo?"

"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHT!"

"Now look what you've done," scolded L'hiem,

As they continued moving down the large cavern hallway, Ak'shara noticed a pair of Oomans guarding a door ahead.

Before they could even notice the advancing monsters, Ak'shara reached for his belt and pulled out his two shuriken. He tossed them both towards the unsuspecting pair. The pair of Ooman's paid for their ignorance with their lives, in a single moment both lost their heads.

Ak'shara casually caught the two disks and replaced them in his belt.

Frank and Chuck were the guards that patrolled the door to the Boss's personal cavern. They stood in a large cavern with an opening in the ceiling that let in a generous amount of light. Throughout the cavern, their raider friends drank and talked and ate. There was plenty of laughter and debauchery; half the guys were a bit tipsy from drinking so much damn booze. The other half were sleeping from drinking so much.

Suddenly a bang came from the door they guarded.

"Did you hear that?" asked Frank,

"Hear what?"

"That noise."

"I didn't hear anything."

"Huh, must be my imagination."

Another bang, this time louder.

"Okay this time I defiantly heard something," asserted Frank,

"I didn't hear anything," replied Chuck.

"But there was a big bang and-"

"There was nothing okay."

"Yeah, whatever."

Another one, this time much louder.

"Okay! You have got to have heard that one," shouted Frank,

"Nope, your minds playing tricks on you."

"But there was defiantly a noi-"

BANG!

The metal doors flew open, Frank and Chuck quickly tumbled away from it, their weapons raised. The entire cavern rang with the sound of the doors; ever raider had grabbed their weapons and was now ready for action. Each one of them had their eyes trained on the door.

Suddenly something came flying out of the darkness. Some sort of orb, two of them actually. The orbs rolled across the ground and stopped just in front of Frank and Chuck.

Frank covered his mouth and turned away.

They were heads. Bloodied and pale.

"What the fuck?" said Chuck,

Suddenly three beams of red light burst from the darkness. The entire cavern stood still, then all hell broke loose.

Bolts of blue energy erupted from the darkness. They tore through the men as if they were paper. The endless stream of fire caused the men to fall into a panic, they all opened fire at the tunnel. It did nothing to stop their opponents.

Suddenly the beams shut themselves off, there was a small shimmer at the door. Frank watched as chuck was suddenly pulled into the air and viciously stabbed to death. Then, for a single moment, he felt the impact of something hit his back. He felt his spine break and waited for the light to take him.

Ak'shara was like the wind, never ending and always on the move. Glaive in hand, he twirled in around his sides in a deadly wheel of blades. The Ooman's fell before him in ones, twos, and threes. Blood splattered across the floor as his blades cut through their flimsy bodies.

Ta'veta wielded his hammer with incredible dexterity, with a single move he sent four Ooman's flying through the room, most likely with broken bones.

L'hiem's burner never stopped firing, each shot sent at least two enemies to their death. Even more impressive was his whip. A rope made from metal strings, covered in a line of razor sharp blades. He swung it in a deadly arc over his head, its blades taking off limbs and slicing off heads.

All the Ooman's could do was fire wildly at their unseen opponents, every now and then one of them would see a shimmer but would soon be decapitated or gunned down. Nothing could live through the trio's endless onslaught. Blood flowed through the cavern as if it had created its own lake.

Ak'shara's blades created a crimson mist that shone brilliantly in the sun light. As he ran he saw a group of at least five Ooman's ahead of him. Thinking quickly he adjusted his grip on his glaive, sliding his hand to the very back of its shaft. As he moved into range, he brought himself to a halt. In a single fluid motion he spun his entire body, glaive brought back and ready for a swing. As he turned he swung his glaive, its razor sharp blade sliced across the line of Oomans. Their heads rolling off one by one in a single second. Blood fountained from their necks, giving it an almost artistic value.

(Considering the stuff I see in art galleries now a day. It could be art. I mean I went to this one, where the art was a cereal box on a stool. I COULD HAVE DONE THAT!)

Ta'veta swung his hammer with an unstoppable force, any Ooman unfortunate enough to be caught by his hammer died without another thought. He swung low and broke an Ooman's knee, then brought it above his head and pulverized it into a bloody mush.

L'hiem swung his whip and latched it around three Oomans, he gave it a powerful jerk and sliced all of them into bloody ribbons. His mask marked a few humans for him, he heard his Burner charge up and unleashed a rapid stream of shots. The Oomans never stood a chance.

In only ten minutes, every raider in the cavern was dead.

The four humans had decided to stand on the sidelines and watch the carnage from afar. It wasn't that they were scared, but they all felt that they would get in the way if they tried joining the fray.

For both Bear and Anna, the sight was a source of both of awe and horror. They had both seen their fair share of incredible soldiers, warriors, and fighters, but these three aliens moved with an inhuman speed and strength.

(I guess that makes sense since they aren't human in the first place.)

Bear found himself almost feeling sorry for the raiders. They had thought they had picked on a simple caravan. Instead they found themselves face to face with the avatars of death itself.

For YinYang, the experience was no less amazing but he felt different about it. He looked at the aliens and he felt himself reach back to his ancestry. Back to the ancient warriors of Asia. The Mongols, the Huns, the Ming Warriors, and the Samurai. He felt as if he were watching them at work, embodied by these other worldly beings.

Trip kind of just watched it in awe. To her this was proof that she had just found the best friends she could possibly have. She was indeed disgusted by all the blood but that was kind of beside the point.

The last Ooman had dropped and they stood victorious, the hunters. Ak'shara felt a rising sense of pride build itself in his chest. Together the three of them let out a huge victory roar, its sound echoing throughout the cavern.

"We should hang them as trophies!" suggested Ta'veta,

"No," said Ak'shara, "here they would only serve as meat for the serpents, and there is no one around to admire our trophies. We leave them as they are."

"How about just one or two?" suggested L'hiem.

Ak'shara paused for a moment, then nodded. Just because they were on a mission didn't mean they couldn't have a bit of fun. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the group of Ooman's they had rescued, standing off to the side and admiring their handy work.

Together the trio began to find bodies that weren't cut up and proceeded to skin them and hang them from the ceiling.

(I am not going to explain how they do that)

"Ugh, what are they doing?" asked Anna in pure disgust.

"I don't know," replied Bear, observing the strung up and skinned body up close, "it must be part of their culture."

"They have one very fucked up culture," summarized Anna.

They watched as the tallest alien pulled up another body using a sort of pulley system. Blood still dripped from the skinned body, forming a pool of blood under it.

"Do you still think they won't harm you?" asked Anna,

"Y-yup!" replied Trip enthusiastically, "I-in fact I think they'll be real good at protecting us!"

"I don't think they intend to do that," said Anna, facepalming herself.

"Y-you don't know that!" accused Trip, then went skipping over to the trio of aliens still in the process of hanging up another body.

"What are we going to do with her?" asked Anna out loud.

"Give her what she wants," suggested YinYang.

"I'm not sure even that would work."


	5. Chapter 5

First I want to thank everyone for reading my story. I honestly didn't expect to get such good feedback for my work. Partially because when I post it on Quizilla, I get a two start rating. What theF****!

But seriously, thanks for the compliments.

Disclaimer: I don't own AVP or anything related to it.

You guys deserve an explanation. You may have noticed that the last chapter was titled home sweet home. That's because it was originally intended to be longer but I cut it short for writing purposes. This is part 2. Just go with it.

Chapter 5

Home, Sweet Home (part2)

"Trip! Come on!" urged Anna. Trip vigorously shook her head, no. Anna let out a moan of frustration. The girl simply refused to leave the company of the aliens.

Anna watched as two of the aliens hauled up a skinned raider body up to ceiling using a long rope. The other alien, the shortest, was directing them like a ring leader. From his hand gestures, Anna could only guess that he was directing them to hang it where it looked most intimidating.

"Trip we need to go," said Anna, still trying to get the stubborn girl to leave.

"N-no we don't, w-we have all the time in the world," she objected, and then went back to watching the aliens string up the bodies.

"God, what did I do to deserve this?" asked Anna aloud. She could imagine him replying, "_You killed a whole lot of people for one thing."_

Anna inhaled deeply and tried to calm herself, of course that was quite hard considering the fact she was surrounded by numerous skinned bodies hanging from the ceiling.

"I think that one should be a little bit higher," commented Bear as he pointed at one of the bodies.

"Hmmmmm, I-I guess it could be," agreed Trip.

"Don't encourage her!" shouted Anna angrily.

Bear just shrugged.

"YinYang, please say something!" pleaded Anna, hoping the silent warrior could offer some help.

He stared at her for a minute, and then turned back to watching the aliens.

"Am I the only one who wants to get out of here?" she shouted aloud.

No reply.

"UGH!" she moaned, stopping over to a rock and sitting down on top of it.

Ak'shara motioned for his companions to raise the trophy a bit higher, when it was at a good height he held up his hands for them to stop.

"**That's** good right there," he said.

"I like the glow of its blood in this light," commented Ta'veta,

"I agree, it has such a nice sheen," said L'hiem.

"What do you think?" Ak'shara asked the small Ooman next to him. It took him a moment to realize what he had just done.

"Damn it! I just tried to talk to one," he whispered angrily. He felt like the more time he spent with these Oomans the more he was becoming accustomed to them.

"Do you think we strung up enough of them?" asked Ta'veta, as he admired their handy work.

"I think it's good, anyone who comes across this place will know of our glorious hunt," assured L'hiem.

"Well then, let us be off," commanded Ak'shara.

Together the three of them began to walk towards the exit; it took Ak'shara a moment to realize the small Ooman was following them again. He sighed in exasperation; she couldn't follow them forever could she?

"Why are we stopping?" asked Ta'veta,

"It's following us again," he explained in an annoyed tone.

The three of them turned back to see the small Ooman bouncing contently in place as it waited for them to move on.

"We have to get it to stop following us," stated Ak'shara,

"What! Why?" asked Ta'veta,

"Need I remind you the mission we were sent on? The whole reason we're on this planet?" he asked impatiently.

"I know why we're here but why can't we have it tag along?" asked Ta'veta defensively.

"Because the last thing we need now is some Ooman getting in the way," explained Ak'shara, "besides there's nothing special about it."

"Well I like it and I think we should keep it as a pet," said Ta'veta stubbornly.

"Ta'veta," started L'hiem, "you already have a dozen hounds as pets. Why on would you possibly need more pets?"

"Well….she could be useful to study," he suggested.

"No!" shouted Ak'shara.

"But-"

"NO!"

"I really thi-"

"NO MEANS NO!" roared Ak'shara, by now he was huffing and puffing with anger. He wasn't angry at Ta'veta, well he was a bit.

"NO Oomans! They are weak and pitiful! If it was another Yautja perhaps I would allow it to tag along, but it's not. The less we have of them the better!"

"Ak'shara. Just calm down," said L'hiem as he put a hand on his leader's shoulder.

"I'm calm, I'm calm," he said as if assuring himself.

Suddenly he felt something touch his shoulder; he whipped around to see the small Ooman with its hand on him. Compared to his cold and tough hide, her skin was soft and warm. He felt a small jolt of electricity rush through his arm and into his heart, he tried to speak but found he couldn't.

It asked him something in its own language but he couldn't understand it. It seemed to be asking him if something was wrong, judging by its facial expression and tone of voice. Out of the corner of his eye he could see its companions with their weapons raised, most likely afraid he'd lash out in anger.

He sighed; he really didn't want to deal with this. But as leader it was up to him to make the decisions.

"If you really feel that strongly about it, we can leave them behind," said Ta'veta solemnly with his head hanging low.

Ak'shara face palmed, if there was one thing Ta'veta was good at, it was making him feel guilty. It was highly uncharacteristic for someone of his size and ferocity, but it was there nonetheless.

"Nice one," whispered L'hiem.

"Thanks," whispered Ta'veta.

"Alright," began Ak'shara, "I'll make you a deal."

"Okay," said Ta'veta, wary of where this was going.

"You can keep the Ooman, if its companions allow it to tag along with us," he began.

"Yes!" howled Ta'veta in victory.

"But, first we put them through a small test," said Ak'shara, "If they make it out of this place alive. Then I'll allow it to tag along as much as you want."

"Ha! That's hardly a test for warriors of their capabilities!" said Ta'veta confidently.

"Do we have a deal?" asked Ak'shara,

"Absolutely!" said Ta'veta.

"Good."

"So how do we begin this test?" asked L'hiem,

"Just cloak and hide," commanded Ak'shara. With that, the three of them engaged their cloaking and leapt into hiding.

"**W**-where did they go?" asked Trip as soon as the three aliens disappeared.

Anna cautiously scanned the room for any sign of the trio of otherworldly beings. Her hand never left her weapon, she had to be ready in case the aliens had decided to start hunting them.

"Y-," yelled Trip, "a-are you guys out there?"

"Trip, keep quiet," commanded Anna, "you're going to attract the entire camp!"

"C-come out my friends!" she continued, "where are you?"

"I wonder why they just vanished?" wondered Bear out loud.

"Maybe they got tired of having us around," suggested Anna.

YinYang just stood there.

"N-nu uh! They're my friends! They'd never leave me with you people," she stated confidently.

"You realize we are the people you've been traveling around with for nearly four years right?"

"Whatever," said Trip dismissively, her eyes suddenly widened as she had a realization, "N-now I get it! They left because of you!"

"Us?"

"Yeah, you were all very unwelcoming of them," accused Trip, crossing her arms like she was serious.

Anna sighed loudly and looked up at the sky.

"God, what did I do to deserve this?"

No response.

'I sure hope whoever I pissed off up there will forgive me soon,' she thought to herself.

"Look Trip, I'm sure our…friends will come back soon. But right now we need to get moving,"

"N-no! I'm not moving one more step until they come back!"

"Why do you like them so much?" asked Bear,

"That's a good question," whispered Anna.

"B-because they rescued us! A-and because they're really nice!" she explained while hopping in place.

"They rip out peoples skulls and hang them up by their ankles after they've skinned them!" pointed out Anna.

"S-so what! It's just part of who they are," she shot back.

"Fine," said Anna, she'd had enough of this nonsense, "if you want to stay, be my guest."

With that, Anna began walking towards the exit tunnel, Bear followed only a few steps behind.

"Y-you won't leave me, y-you'll come right back," Trip said to herself as she twirled in place.

"A-any minute now," she said to reassure herself. A minute passed, then another.

"A-are you guys still there?" she asked, not wanting to turn around.

No response.

"Y-you know if you leave me you'll go to hell!"

No response.

"Y-your moms would be ashamed of you!" she yelled.

Still no response.

"Y-you need me to fix stuff!"

Still no response.

"C-come on! Y-you know I get scared of being left alone!"

Still no response, this is getting ridiculous.

Trip started feeling a bit antsy. She felt small beads of sweat develop along her forehead and her arm. Her heart began to beat a bit faster.

"A-are you guys having fun doing this to me!"

No response, in fact this time there is the sound of a cricket chirping.

"Trip."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Trip leapt into the air and fell flat on her bottom, she looked up to see YinYang standing over her.

"I believe we should go," he said.

"B-but what about my friends!" she protested,

"If they are truly your friends, then they will find us."

Trip though about it for a moment. She was pretty sure that they were her friends, they hadn't done anything to suggest otherwise, and YinYang was always right about things, always.

Trip remembered that one time, it had been a completely sunny and beautiful day, no bad omens for miles. YinYang however, predicted that this was going to be a very bad day.

Trip had scoffed at him and called him a pessimist, but sure enough, bad things happened. It started off when she couldn't find her favorite wrench. Then their Stryker got a tire caught in a very deep pothole. After that they got attacked by a bunch of half-naked raiders, some of which the clothing was not covering their lower half. Then a lightning storm rolled on in with plenty of rain. She hated rain.

"Fine," she said, finally conceding.

She pushed herself up off the ground and dusted off her pants. Together they walked towards the exit.

"You know," she started, "that was the most words I've ever heard you say."

YinYang said nothing as usual, he just looked straight ahead and continued walking.

Anna heard Trip running behind them before she ever turned around.

"Hey! Wait up for us!" shouted Trip,

Anna turned to see Trip skipping merrily through the cavern tunnel, her long hair bouncing around behind her.

"About time," commented Anna,

"Let's go already!" commanded Trip, "I don't like this cavern, it full of ugly people."

"What made you change your mind?" asked Bear,

"Oh! YinYang said our friends will catch up with us later" she explained,

Anna turned to YinYang, he shrugged and kept moving.

"Sometimes I wonder what we'd do without YinYang," chuckled Anna,

"Probably be a pile of corpses in the mountains," answered Bear, "remember that one raid we made?"

"Ah yes, how could I forget?"

With their whole team together again, the four humans continued their trek through the caverns.

The tunnels were round and filled with ripples, remnants of water erosion. Every couple of meters an oil lamp would be hung from the ceiling, providing a nice glow in the darkness that filled the tunnels. Under better circumstances this would have been like a pleasant vacation. Still, it was a breath taking scene, it was a shame that in this day and age no one had time to appreciate art or culture.

Anna just wished it wasn't so damn cold. She'd given her jacket to Trip and was left only with her olive green tank top, she could feel the goose bumps on her arm form. She tried to focus on her Spetsnaz training and remove the cold from her thoughts, pretty soon the cold was just another inconvenience. It paid to have military training.

**Ak'shara **watched the Oomans from his perch at the top of the cavern ceiling, his vision was filled with various shades of orange and red, even some blue and green.

If there was one thing Ak'shara had not learned to hate or love about his Ooman side, it was the ability to see in a normal light spectrum. Part of him saw it as an advantage, he could not be blinded by heat or cold, he had heard of a mighty hunter that had lost to an Ooman because it had covered itself in a cold substance.

On the other hand, he was practically blind in the dark. He was thankful for his mask, if he went through the dark with his own limited vision, he would have bumped right into the Oomans and not even known it.

Everything looked rather strange in thermal vision, he couldn't really make out any facial features of the Oomans and the cave just seemed like a large blue mass in the background.

He reached up to his mask and switched his vision filter to night vision, a small modification he had had L'hiem install for him.

His vision was now filled with a sickly green hue, but at least he could see detail again.

While he was up in his perch he had scanned the four Oomans and found some surprising news.

"L'hiem, Ta'veta,"

"Yes?" they both asked,

"Two of the Oomans are female," he stated bluntly.

"What!" whispered L'hiem in surprise,

"You're sure?" asked Ta'veta,

"Positive, unless my mask is faulty,"

"So, why did you tell us this?" asked L'hiem curiously,

"I don't know, I just thought I'd tell you," he replied.

"Are you going to mate with them?"

Ak'shara nearly fell of his perch when he heard what Ta'veta asked. Well, actually he did fall of his perch but managed to catch himself before he hit the floor. He quickly pulled himself back up, his cheeks burning with rage and embarrassment.

"Why on earth would you ask that!" he whispered harshly,

"Well, you seem to think highly of them and you are part Ooman so it would make sense," reasoned L'hiem,

"Those are good points," agreed Ta'veta, "I'm glad you've finally found a few mates Ak'shara."

"I'm not going to mate with them!" he growled, "the very thought is dishonorable! They are but weak and honerless humans!"

"So they're not good warriors?" asked Ta'veta,

"No! They are very good warriors, much better the most Oomans. You saw what they did out there!"

"So they aren't weak and pathetic?" asked L'hiem,

"No! They are!"

"Which is it? Are they powerful warriors, or weak and homerless?" asked L'hiem,

"Yes, I wish to know an answer. Why do you keep contradicting yourself Ak'shara?"

"I'm not!"

"Then what are they?"

"Both! Neither! I don't know! Leave me alone!"

"You always say that," said Ta'veta accusingly, "whenever we get into a talk about Oomans, you end up saying 'leave me alone!"

"Just leave me alone," muttered Ak'shara,

"See!"

_SHINK!_

Ak'shara unsheathed his wrist blades. Ta'veta and L'hiem held up their hands in surrender, Ak'shara reseated them and jumped to another perch.

"Idiots," he whispered to himself.

As he jumped from perch to perch he found himself staring down at the Oomans, the cave was becoming more and more well lit as they progressed, so he decided to switch off his night vision.

His eyes drifted to the largest of the Oomans. A large specimen, though nowhere near as large as the smallest Yautja. He had brown colored hair with a few streaks of white. Small patches of hair covered his face. He had a barrel chest and arms the size of most Ooman's legs. His eyes told Ak'shara that he was an experienced warrior that had seen many battles.

His eyes moved to the next, the other male of the group. Not as tall or muscular as the other but still carried an air of danger. His eyes were cold and calculating, his steps were fluid and without sound. A good hunter. Nothing could faze him easily.

The next was the Ooman that he had let hang from his fore arm. The female. A small and delicate looking thing, he wasn't quite sure what its role was. He had seen it fight with tenacity and without fear. He respected that, he didn't know too much about Oomans but he knew enough to see that this one was quite young. The unblooded could learn a thing or two from her.

Then there was the last Ooman, also a female. She was not the largest or the strongest but she was indeed the leader. She walked in the front of the group and held an air of leadership, as if she was a natural leader. Something he wasn't, he scowled at the conclusion. She had short black hair and some sort of grey cloth wrapped around her forehead. She was slender but athletic, Ak'shara could see that her muscles were well toned and ready for use. Her body was rather curvaceous, something that Oomans found attractive in their females.

'I wonder if they have milk glands like Yautja females?' he wondered to himself,

He leaped to a perch ahead of the group of Oomans to get a better look. She did. They were quite apparent as well.

(That means she's got big…no, I'm not going to finish that sentence. You guys just use your imagination. I don't know why I wrote that.)

Ak'shara felt strange staring at her, if he didn't know better he might say he was starting to feel attracted but that was impossible.

'I can't be attracted to an Ooman female. They're weak and pathetic. I mean would she seem attractive another Ooman? Absolutely', he thought to himself, he sat on his perch for a moment, then realized what he had just said, 'I can't believe I just said that. I will never speak of this again.'

Up ahead he noticed something, a smile touched his lips.

**It** took only twenty minutes for them to run into trouble. Trouble came in the form of a lone guard, standing with his back to them. The guard was whistling to himself and apparently unaware of the massacre that had just taken place, Anna couldn't blame him, these tunnels were pretty damn long.

"I've got this one," whispered Anna,

She dropped into a crouched position and began to quietly walk across the floor, her gentle steps didn't make a single sound. As she neared her target she pulled out a knife from her belt, for a raider boss, Conner hadn't been smart enough to search them.

She held her knife in a firm grasp as she got closer, she could almost hear his heartbeat. She licked her lips in anticipation of the kill.

As soon as she was close enough, she lashed out with her foot and kicked him in the back of the knee, causing him his knees. As he fell, Anna wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled him in close.

The last thing he saw was the flash of her knife as it descended down and through his forehead.

He jerked once, then became still. Anna carefully guided his body to the floor so that it wouldn't make any noise.

She saw the shotgun the guard had been carrying, a SPAS-12 semi-automatic and gas operated. She picked it up and examined it, working condition and relatively unused. She nodded in satisfaction and scavenged 36 shells from the raider's body.

The humans pushed on through the door the guard had been guarding and out into the open sky.

They had stepped out into what seemed to be a barracks. Small makeshift building had been erected along the sides of a small circular canyon, most of scrap metal some more of a tent made with animal skins. In addition sandbag walls had been placed in front of the buildings and around the canyon. Judging from the angle the sandbag walls were put, it was defend from an outside attack, not an inside. Everywhere they looked, raiders were walking about.

On the far side of the canyon was the exit.

Unfortunately, the exit had two guard towers on both its right and left. On those guard towers were in fact, guards. Guards with what looked like heavy machine guns. In addition, about three dozen raiders were in the small canyon alone.

"This is not good," summarized Bear

"I-I think we can take them," said Trip, ever the optimist.

"Hey! Who are you!" shouted a raider only five feet from them.

"Those are the prison-"

Before the raider's friend could finish his sentence, Anna shouldered her shotgun and pulled the trigger. Her first shot caught the raider square in the chest, her next shot blew off the other's head.

"Enemy!"

"Open fire!"

"Get into cover!" shouted Anna,

Immediately the four of them dove behind a sandbag wall, just in time. A second later bullets began to rip through the air above them. She could feel the bullet impact the sand bag wall, only to be stopped by its thick mass.

"Gunners on the towers!" she yelled,

YinYang nodded, he popped up from his cover and aimed his FN FAL. He sighted the gunners in the two towers. He squeezed of two shot in quick succession, both caught the first gunner in the head. He jerked then fell of the gun. YinYang quickly switched to the other gunner and fired three rounds. His first shot missed and whizzed past the man's ear but it served to make the man stop firing. His next two shots caught the gunner in the chest. He saw the man's shoulder's slump and drop dead.

Anna sighted a group of raiders advancing on their position. Knowing her shotgun would be ineffective at this range, she whipped out her pistol. She squeezed the trigger in rapid succession, emptying 8 rounds in three seconds and making five bodies hit the ground.

"Bear, with me! Trip! Stay with YinYang!" she barked,

She pulled out her shotgun and took a breath before bursting out of cover. She raced across the ground towards another sandbag wall, narrowly avoiding the bullets fired by the raiders.

Three raiders popped up from behind the sandbag wall, weapons at the ready. She quickly lined up a shot and fired once, the raider to the right fell back as the slugs tore through his body. She quickly lined up another shot and fired, dropping the middle raider. By now the last raider had gotten a beat on her, he may have only had a pistol but bullets were bullets.

Remembering her training she dived into a somersault, she heard a shot and felt it pass over her head. She came up directly in front of the raider, the only thing separating them was the sandbag wall. Using the butt stock of her shotgun she smacked him across the face, making him stumble backwards.

She pulled the trigger and blew him away, then ducked behind the sandbags. Bear slid in beside her, they nodded at each other in a silent agreement.

Bear leaned over her cover and sent a quick burst at the nearest raider, dropping him quickly. Anna popped out and double tapped her trigger, sending two burst of fire tearing through a pair of raiders. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a raider lining up a shot, but before he could pull the trigger a burst of blood erupted from his forehead.

Anna turned to see the shot had come from YinYang, she nodded a quick thanks and he nodded back.

She was starting to feel the adrenaline kick in, it felt good. Like a thousand volts of electricity was surging through her body, giving her the energy to win.

Spotting another two targets she aimed and fired, dropping both with three shots. Bear spotted a group of charging raiders, obviously trying to overwhelm them with superior numbers, it didn't work. He flicked his SMG to full auto and sprayed their lines with automatic fire, sending their bodies tumbling to the ground.

His gun clicked empty, he ejected the spent mag and slapped in a fresh one.

Anna rolled over to a separate sandbag wall, hoping that would spread the raider's fire pattern. Bullets impacted the sand bags and threw up the gritty substance into the air, not feeling very safe she broke form her cover and dashed behind the wall of one of the houses.

Bullets pinged off the flimsy structure, weak but sufficient.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Anna turned to see the scream had originated from a raider, the man charged at her from the side, a hatchet in hand. Behind her she spotted another raider with a knife in hand and getting ready to cut her open.

Choosing the closer of the two, she flipped around and shoved the barrel of the shotgun against the knife wielding raider. She pulled the trigger and blew a hole the size of a dinner plate through his stomach, sending him flying back against the canyon wall.

Behind her the hatchet wielder was already close, only a few more steps and he would be upon her.

Thinking quickly she stretched out her right leg and swung it backwards, her foot connected with his face and sent him stumbling backwards. She shouldered her shotgun and pulled the trigger.

CLICK

Out of ammo.

The raider had recovered, his mouth turning into a gleeful smile. His eyes wild with blood lust he charged.

Anna reached for her pistol but knew she was too slow.

She was going to die.

Then, a flash of blue and red. The raider's head simply disappeared.

A small beam of red hung over the raider's body, then it simply disappeared.

"I told you they'd be back!" shouted Trip,

"Shut up!"

**Ak'shara **quickly turned off his shoulder burner, lest the hostile Ooman's discover his position.

"I thought you said 'no interference'," commented L'hiem on his right,

"No I didn't," muttered Ak'shara.

"Yes you did," accused Ta'veta, "I have proof!"

He entered a few commands into his wrist computer and played a recording.

In the recording, Ak'shara clearly said, "I don't want any interference. This is a test and they must do it on their own."

"See! You did say it!" accused Ta'veta,

"Go fall off a cliff you serpent pauker," he growled,

"Whoa! No need for language!" shouted L'hiem,

"If you get to shoot one, I want to shoot one too," said Ta'veta,

"Why?"

"Because you got to shoot one!"

"Fine,"

"Can I shoot one too?" asked L'hiem,

"Be my guest," conceded Ak'shara.

Simultaneously they activated their burners, L'hiem was the first to fire. He had upgraded to the new burner model, one that charged itself up then fired a chain of shots.

(Watch the Predators 2010 movie)

His Burner began to spin at a high speed and glow a light blue, then it unleashed flurry of bright blue shots. A line of Oomans that had attempted to charge the group was immediately cut down in a clash of blue and red.

Ta'veta noticed an Ooman firing it's weapon at the little one, his mask targeted the Ooman for him. He fired and burned a hole through its chest.

"Are you happy now?" asked Ak'shara, clearly annoyed.

"Is the deal still on?" asked Ta'veta,

"Yes,"

"Then I'm happy."

"I'm surprised Ak'shara, I thought it would be Ta'veta that would break first," commented L'hiem,

"Just leave me alone,"

**Anna **smiled as the raiders were cut down by the volley of blue missiles. The raiders were thrown into chaos from the unexpected attack, they fired wildly and in every direction.

The chaos made it easy for the four humans to pick off the remaining raiders.

To the side something caught her attention, her eyes widened at what she saw. Dozens of tanks of propane, a stray bullet must have hit it because a moment later it burst into flames.

The explosion kicked up mountains of sand, the shockwave caused a hurricane of wind. They had created a small sandstorm, she couldn't see three feet in front of her.

Her senses kicked into overdrive, every part of her was working harder than ever as she stood in the middle of the storm.

She heard noise, something behind her. She whipped around and spotted a raider, she fired and spun around to see another, she fired from the hip and took him down.

By now her presence must have been common knowledge because she was suddenly being charged from all directions. Bandits wielding melee weapons attacked her recklessly, more like animals then men.

She fired again and again, never bothering to aim. She didn't need to at this distance. One raider tried to decapitate her with an axe, she stopped it with her shotgun and kicked him away and shot him at point blank. Another attacked from the side, she side stepped and cracked his head open with a smack from her gun.

One came from the left, she fired and sent the raider flying away.

Bear was also under attack, but melee combat was hardly a problem for him. He sprayed a group of raiders with automatic fire, mowing them down like they were nothing. A raider jumped out from the storm and grabbed the big man's gun and ripped it away from him.

Bear immediately shot out his hand and grabbed the puny raider by the neck and lifted him straight off the ground. He unholstered his pistol and emptied the magazine into the raider's stomach.

A raider attempted to get the drop on YinYang, he easily grabbed the flimsy punch by the wrist and pulled the man in and brought his knee up into the raider's stomach. Then kicked him behind the knee, forcing him to drop down. With a swift motion he brought up his leg and dropped it onto the man's exposed neck. Fatality.

Anna was out of shotgun slugs and was down to her last pistol mag. She scanned the storm for any movement of the enemy. For what seemed to be a long time there was nothing, perhaps all the raiders were dead.

"Gotcha now bitch!" shouted someone behind her.

She whipped around just in time to see the raider jumping through the air. An axe in his hand, ready to bring it down on her head.

But something happened, he stopped. Literally ,in mid-air. Blood suddenly fountained from his stomach and mouth, he gurgled something incoherent.

One of the aliens, the shortest, suddenly materialized out of thin air, his wrist blades sunk into the man's back.

Anna could only imagine what horrible pain the raider was going through, to be stabbed in the back and still alive.

(Picture this next part in a dramatic way)

The raider coughed up more blood. The alien lifted the man above his head, an air of bloodlust surrounding him. He unsheathed his left arm's wrist blades and sunck them into the man's back as well. Then, with a roll of his powerful shoulders, he tore the man in half. Blood erupted from the corpse, drenching the ground in a crimson tide.

The alien roared in satisfaction.

"wow," she whispered.

The alien turned to her, as if noticing her for the for the first time.

"Um…thanks, I think." She stuttered,

The alien seemed to understand what she said but gave no real indication. It just turned around and walked back to its comrades.

Anna sighed.

"What a weird day."


	6. Chapter 6

Okay, so I named the last two chapters the same title. And I'm going to make this one the same title also. Sorry but I didn't expect to write so damn much. So that's my explanation. I'm just gonna name this chapter something else.

Also thank you all for your generous feedback. I appreciate it a lot. This will be my last upload for a while. I'm not going to be able to use the computer for a bit. Don't ask me why.

I'd also like to remind anyone reading this that Anna and Bear speak with Russian accents and YinYang speaks with a heavy Chinese accent. Think Jet Li. And Trip…She's an American, they don't have accents. Well…I guess they do if you're British or something.

Disclaimer: I don't own AVP, not cool enough to. I do own these characters, no touchy!

Chapter 6

Wanna play doctor?

"S-so are you okay with them now?"

"Leave me alone Trip," moaned Anna,

"O-oh come on! Y-you have to like them now!"

"Just because they save my life once-"

"T-twice!"

"What?"

"T-twice! They also saved us in the cave, remember?"

"Fine! Twice, doesn't mean I suddenly like them. I'm grateful but that doesn't mean I have to like it," said Anna,

"H-humph! Selfish old hag," muttered Trip,

"What?" roared Anna,

"N-nothing!" cowered Trip, Anna glowered at Trip and looked ready to bend her over and give her a spanking.

"E-eeep!" screeched Trip; she dashed away, Anna hot in pursuit.

They ran around the destroyed encampment, weaving around the debris and dead bodies. (That's a weird image)

Finally Trip found salvation behind one of the aliens, sort of.

"H-ha!" shouted Trip, diving behind the shortest of the aliens, who was busy inspecting his kill. Like a chef that tastes his food.

"Trip get out here!" shouted Anna,

"N-no!"

"NOW!"

"N-no!"

"Come out or you're not getting any more Gram Crackers."

"H-hey! That's not fair!"

"Now!"

"N-no! It's not worth the risk!"

Anna sighed; she had already known that the Gram Cracker tactic wouldn't work. It never did. She glanced at the alien towering over her; it looked pretty confused as Trip hid behind him.

He was defiantly male. He had an incredibly impressive set of 8 pack abs. You could probably hit him with an anvil and it would just bounce right off.

"Trip," she started, "just get out here."

"N-no!"

"Please?"

"O-on one condition!"

"What?"

"Thank Samael for saving you," she commanded,

"Who?" asked Anna, the girl had lost her mind.

"Samael," repeated Trip, pointing at the large alien. Who was probably thinking something along the lines of _who are these crazy people?_

"You named the 7ft tall killer alien, Samael?"

Trip nodded.

"Why?"

"Because he saved you! Twice!"

"No, I mean why Samael?" she clarified,

"I dunno, I just liked it."

Anna sighed even louder, this was not looking good. Why couldn't the aliens have just stayed away? Then again if they had been anyone else Anna would have gladly thanked him.

"Alright fine," she finally said. She turned to the alien and looked him in the eye, er mask. "Thank you, Samael."

**Ak'shara **listened intently as the two females argued with each other. Form what he could tell, the younger one had insulted the older one and now the older one was going to discipline the younger one.

Much like what would have happened in his own clan. A leader had to keep his followers in check; any young blood caught insulting an elder would have been executed on the spot.

Execution. That was a nice thought. (Not sarcasm)

By now the two Oomans seemed to be coming to an agreement of some sort. The older one seemed to be reluctant to agree to the deal.

She turned to face Ak'shara and looked up into his eyes.

"Aenk Ou Samael," she said, (thank you Samael)

Ak'shara didn't know how to respond. For a moment the two of them simply stood there, looking at each other.

The Ooman broke the trance first and spun on her heel and turned away.

"You're welcome."

**Anna **spun on her heel and began to walk away when suddenly,

"Er elcom" said a voice behind her. It was throaty and kind of wet sounding.

That was not Trip's voice.

"I think he can speak our language," said YinYang, suddenly appearing beside her. She nearly jumped out of her boots when she saw him next to her. She hated it when he did that.

"Oooh! F-finally! I-I have a new friend to talk to and not a bunch of old people!"

Anna was still too stunned to hear Trip's casual insult.

"You can speak our language?" she asked, expecting the alien to speak again.

He didn't, he just ignored her and walked away to join his comrades.

"H-hey! W-wait up Sammy!" shouted Trip as she dashed after the alien.

"Anna? Are you alright?" asked Bear,

"It can speak our language," she said.

"What?"

"The alien, it can speak our language."

Bear stood still and took in what she had said.

"You are sure?"

"Yes, it's not very fluent, of that much I'm sure," she responded, remembering the jumble of sounds that had been a "your welcome"

"Perhaps they have been studying us for a very long time," reasoned Bear. "I hear of this one man, Special Forces, went into a jungle. Claimed to have contact with extra-terrestrial."

"I've read that report too. When the bugs attacked I thought that they may be the extra-terrestrial. But, now I think it might be them," she explained. They certainly matched the description.

"So why haven't they killed us?" asked Bear,

"I don't know; maybe it's like what Trip said. Maybe they just like us."

The three of them glanced over as Trip gleefully hung from the shortest alien's outstretched arm. She swung back and forth without a care in the world as the shortest seemed to be talking to its companions.

"**You **can speak their language?" asked Ta'veta,

Ak'shara stretched out his arm and let the tiny Ooman hang from it. He watched in amusement as it happily latched on and began swinging back and forth.

"Well, I might have dabbled a bit," he replied.

"You can speak their language?" asked Ta'veta again,

"Oh great," said L'hiem, "Now you've broken him."

"You never told us you could speak Ooman," accused Ta'veta,

"Leave me alone, it's not exactly something I'm proud of," he said as he gave the Ooman a small swing.

She smiled at him in thanks and started humming a small tune as she peacefully rocked back and forth.

"When did you learn to speak Ooman?" asked Ta'veta like his life depended on it.

"L'hiem taught me," he answered,

Ta'veta whipped around and grabbed L'hiem by the shoulders.

"You know how to speak Ooman," he shouted,

"Uh…sort of," replied L'hiem, trying to create some distance between him and the behemoth.

"Why didn't you teach me?" asked Ta'veta,

"I didn't think you would want to," explained L'hiem, "You're always training with your hammer and stealth tactics."

"You could have at least offered!"

"Well…I didn't."

"Say something!"

"Something."

"NO! I mean in Ooman, say something in Ooman!"

"Alright, fine! Just get off of me!"

Ta'veta immediately let go of L'hiem.

L'hiem dusted himself off and turned to the Ooman holding onto Ak'shara's arm.

"Erello," he said,

The Ooman seemed to understand and replied with the same word, then shouted something to its companions.

"What did she say! What did she say!" he asked urgently. He shook L'hiem so hard his mask nearly came off.

"Stop it! She told her companions that I too can speak their language,"

"Can you teach me?" asked Ta'veta like a hungry dog,

"We're on a mission right now, maybe later."

"NO! It has to be now!" shouted Ta'veta as he shook his hammer wildly.

"Alright fine," said L'hiem, afraid that the large oaf might accidently swing the hammer at him.

"YES!" shouted Ta'veta, "I get to communicate with my prey!"

Ak'shara face palmed and started trying to remember why the two of them had ever become friends.

"Let's just get out of here," groaned Ak'shara.

**Anna **had commanded YinYang to watch Trip while she and Bear went to look for anything useful among the dead.

Out of the corner of her eye she occasionally watched as the aliens seemed to bicker among themselves. The largest in particular seemed to be the angry one this time.

"H-hey Anna!" shouted Trip, waving at them while still holding on the alien's arm.

"What?"

"This one can speak too!" she shouted, pointing at the one of middle height.

So another could speak their language as well, though not very surprising it strengthen her belief that these otherworldly beings had been to their planet before.

"Anna!" shouted Bear, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looked over to see the man waving for her to come over.

"Look at this," he said, when she arrived. He pointed to a door, one that had been previously concealed by the structure it was in. The raiders had apparently been doing some sort of mining, as the door was stuck into the rock face.

"Well, secret doors do always have something worth taking," she said, she grabbed the door handle and gave it a good yank. It was stuck pretty good, she pulled with all her strength but it wouldn't budge.

She was about to try again when Bear stopped her.

"Let me try," he suggested.

He grabbed the handle with one hand, with a single yank he ripped the door from its hinges, and then casually threw it behind him onto the ground.

"Show off," she muttered, if Bear had heard her comment he made no indication. He simply gestured her to go inside.

She rolled her eyes and unslung her shotgun, she made sure it was loaded before walking into through the entrance.

The entrance led through to a poorly lit tunnel, the only source of light being a few oil lamps tied to the ceiling, Anna made a note to take those with them later.

They soon came to the end of the tunnel, where they found a nice prize waiting for them.

It was a supply room. Large stacks of ammo, food, and weapons along with other things were piled up into large stacks of crates.

"I believe the Americans call this, Jackpot," commented Bear,

"Well at least we won't come out empty handed," said Anna. She slung her shotgun over her shoulder and walked over to inspect the crates.

She pried the lid off of one; it was filled to the brim with canned foods. A very good thing. She placed the lid back on and checked another crate; it was filled with boxes of various caliber bullets. She especially liked what she found in the next one, a pump action grenade launcher.

"Nice, I haven't seen one of these for a long time. They're supposed to be out of use, collector's items."

"Well, beggars can't be choosers," said Bear

They then began the process of hauling each individual crate out of the tunnel, one by one; actually it was more like Bear carried each one out one by one. Anna kind of just watched him do it. Don't worry, he likes using his muscle.

"**No **we can't stay!" commanded Ak'shara,

"But we have to, how else are they supposed to follow," asked Ta'veta pointing to the Oomans.

"They're not supposed to follow; we're on a mission to kill a criminal. Not collect slaves or prey."

"But you said if they passed the test we could stay with them!"

"You did say that," confirmed L'hiem,

"Thanks L'hiem, you're a lot of help."

"Anytime."

"You must honor your word!" shouted Ta'veta,

"I have to honor my word to kill the bad blood!"

"You have to honor this one too! Do you have honor or not?"

"Ouch! Low blow," commented L'hiem.

Ak'shara knew L'hiem was right and so did Ta'veta. He had just struck a certain weakness of Ak'shara's. After years of torment, of being labeled a freak, he had developed a goal to be the most honorable among the hunters. Now, it had backed him into a corner.

"Damn it, fine. We'll stay until they leave," he said, finally conceding.

"YES!" roared Ta'veta, jumping in the air and howling for joy.

Ak'shara let a small smile find its way on to his lips. He couldn't help it, Ta'veta, despite his size, had always been the little brother. It made Ak'shara feel light hearted to see the big oaf so happy, even if it was at his own expense.

"Black Warrior take me, I still don't know how to track the bad blood," he said to himself.

He sat down on a rock to try and relax; suddenly he felt something leap on to him. His first instinct was to reach up and throw it to the ground and stomp on its face if it had one.

But he stopped as soon as he saw what had jumped on him. It was the small Ooman female, she had somehow managed to climb up the rock and jump on to him with both her legs hanging on either side of his head. Above him she and Ta'veta were playing some sort of game, he didn't know what and he didn't care.

"Kind of sucks doesn't it?" asked L'hiem next to him,

"Kind of."

(I don't know Ak'shara. Most guys would like a girl riding around on their shoulders)

Suddenly a loud sound echoed through the canyon.

**Anna **and Bear walked together towards the exit, the last crate, packed with ammo, in Bear's large burly arms.

"What do you think Anna?"

"Hm, about what?"

"Trip's new friends," he explained, "what do you think about them?"

"Well, they're big, dangerous, and take the skulls of those they kill for god knows why. What could possibly go wrong?"

"So you don't like them."

"I'm just not so sure about having them around. Who knows when we could be their next targets."

"Yes, well we'll have to get Trip to-"

BAM!BAM!BAM!

Three gun shots echoed through the tunnel. A raider in the entrance, hidden in the darkness, another already making a run for it.

Anna dropped to the floor.

Bear immediately dropped the crate and let his training kick in. He lunged at the raider and pushed him to the ground.

He brought back his fist and slammed it into the raider's nose, breaking it and causing it to squirt blood. He brought back down again and again in a relentless barrage, finally he grabbed the raider's head with both hands and viciously twisted it, he heard a sharp snap and let the dead body hit the floor.

He quickly checked Anna's pulse, it was steady but it wouldn't last long. He scooped her up and rushed outside.

He saw that one of the alien's had already sliced the remaining raider into bloody ribbons.

That would have been a good thing, except they didn't have any medical equipment to save Anna. She was going to die.

**The trio of hunters watched ** as the large male Ooman carried the female outside. She had been wounded, her clothing was soaked with blood in three different places. Ak'shara did a quick scan of her body (not what you're thinking you damn perverts!), the readings showed that she was losing a large amount of blood and would not be able to hold out for long. Her heart rate was already rising rapidly.

"We have to help them!" pleaded Ta'veta,

"Why? They're just Oomans," said Ak'shara, ice filling his throat.

"But they're our friends."

"They are prey that we hunt and take for trophies, nothing more," he replied, turning away.

"Ak'shara," started L'hiem, "maybe we should, you know how Ta'veta is about these kinds of things."

"I said no, we've already wasted enough time as it is."

"Ak'shara please!" pleaded Ta'veta, "We have medical supplies on our ship! We can save her!"

Ak'shara stopped in his tracks.

In his mind, a memory awoke.

_A young hunter stood at a canyon, bloodied and weary but he was alive. He used his spear as a crutch to support his heavily wounded leg, behind him three others followed._

_The young hunter turned back and did a quick head count._

"_There are only four of us! Where is Ke'pa!"_

"_I don't know, we may have lost him during the fight." Said one of them,_

_The young hunter quickly bolted back towards the canyon, only to be stopped by one of his companions._

"_He's dead young one, you have already given yourself glory today. You do not need more, it is no use to you dead."_

"_But we must go back, we cannot simply leave him!"_

"_Ke'pa is an honorable warrior, he will have died fighting."_

"_NO! We must go back. We can save him!"_

"Please Ak'shara!" pleaded Ta'veta, snapping him back to the present.

His eyes drifted to the dying Ooman, her eyes seemed to flutter back and forth between life and death. Her breaths were becoming shorter, her eyelids struggled to stay open.

The smaller Ooman female was visibly distressed, she made moans of sadness and tears dropped out of her eyes.

Ak'shara felt a hand grip his cold heart.

Such a powerful warrior in such a pitiful state, with a large sigh he made his choice.

"Alright, we'll help."

Ta'veta visibly brightened, L'hiem gave him a pat on the shoulder, as if saying, "It'll be worth it later."

Ak'shara opened his wrist computer and typed in a series of commands.

A moment later their ship decloaked in the air, the small Ooman's eyes widened in awe. Dust billowed through the air as it descended onto the ground, taking up nearly the entire canyon. Its sharp angular front resembled a bird's beak, its sides almost resembled tucked away wings.

It lowered a catwalk for entrance, finally its engines died down and the dust rested back on the ground.

Ak'shara walked over to the injured Ooman and picked her up in his arms bridal style. He motioned for the others to follow as he took her into the ship.

The inside of the ship came to life as they entered, the odd group passed by many rooms until they finally came to the medical room.

The door immediately slid open at Ak'shara's presence, he motioned for the Oomans to wait outside. They were reluctant at first, especially the two males but with some insistence from the female and L'hiem's "he doctor," they finally gave up.

Ak'shara immediately inside, inside he quickly laid her down on a table. He tapped a few keys on a nearby console. Bringing down a large tube like appendage hanging from the ceiling, he used it to scan her body for the damage.

A screen showed her she had three injuries, one in her right shoulder, another between her left ribcage and another in her right leg.

He began with removing her clothing, a task he knew would come back to bite him. Though he left on her undergarments.

With her clothes removed he could see where the injuries had occurred much more clearly. He selected a set of tweezers from a selection of medical tools, then switched his vision mode to x-ray.

Through it he could see the Ooman's skeletal structure and internal organs. In addition he could see the small round metal pellets the Ooman's fired from their burners.

He first sedated the Ooman so that she wouldn't wake up in the middle of the operation, then started to work.

He started with the first one, in her right shoulder. He dug carefully through her flesh until he reached the metal ball, carefully he extracted it from her shoulder and dropped it onto a plate. He moved down to the next one, it had lodged itself just behind one of her ribs. It was a bit trickier then the last one but he managed to get it out too.

He then moved on to the next one. He placed his hand around her leg and was about to start digging, when she suddenly woke up.

**Anna **felt like she was floating through the air. Her mind a mess of thoughts and feelings, nothing made sense, nothing at all.

She began to see shapes in her mind, she recognized a few, though they were blurry. Ones like Bear, YinYang, Trip and her parents. She saw a few faces from her Spetsnaz group, back when they fought the New Taliban. Then she came to one that surprised her, out of all the figures in the scene, this one was the clearest.

She stepped forward, slowly edging her way towards it. It was tall and muscular, dread lock style hair. Its back to her, it stared off into the distance as if looking for something.

It turned around to face her, it was the alien that had saved her. Why was he the clearest?

He stepped forward, getting closer and closer towards her. Every instinct in her body screamed for her to step back, but she couldn't. Her feet had been nailed in place, there was not going back.

The alien continued walking, until only a few inches separated them.

It reached up with one hand and cupped her cheek, he tilted his head like a curious cat. His skin felt vaguely reptilian and rough, but it was also warm and inviting.

He took his hand away, her cheek instantly cooled. Almost as if he had taken the heat with him, he reached up to his mask and unhooked a few cords.

(Play dramatic music)

Slowly, he took the mask off, revealing-

Nothing.

His face wasn't there, it was an utter blank. She couldn't see it because she didn't know what it was like.

Suddenly a jolt of pan surged through her right leg, the universe broke apart and she awoke.

The first thing she noticed, was she was lying down on something hard and cold. The next thing that she noticed, she was in pain, a lot of pain.

"Ugh…someone kill the raider who shot me please," she said groggily,

God, she felt naked. Then she realized, she almost was. Someone had stripped her down to her bra and panties.

As her vision came into focus she made out a strange interior design, it looked like some sort of metal fused with bone.

Finally, she noticed the hand on her leg. A large taloned hand that gripped her leg a little too close to her groin.

She let out a small yelp and quickly pulled away from the hand, then tried to get off the table but was quickly stopped by another hand as it gripped her neck.

She looked up to see the alien that had saved her twice, Samael.

"Hey," she said out of the blue.

"Ereas, arm rown"(please calm down) he said,

She nodded slightly, she glanced down and noticed two bullets on a small plate on what looked like surgeon's table.

"Were you…operating on me?" she asked,

Samael nodded.

Suddenly he raised a hand and placed it on her collar bone, trying to push her back down.

At first she resisted, but when he pointed to the wound in her leg and she suddenly realized how much pain she was in and complied.

The table was cold, but she ignored it. Her training demanded that she deal with the uncomfortableness of her situation.

Samael placed his hand back on her leg, again a little too close to her groin, and began to dig through with his tweezers.

Pain lanced through her body as he dug into her, it was unbearable. She clenched her teeth to stifle a yelp but failed in letting out a small whimper.

"Shit," she muttered,

After what seemed like hours of pain, she heard the small clank of the bullet falling onto the plate and knew it was finally over.

She let loose a breath she didn't even know she had been holding, glad that it was finally over.

Samael brought some sort of tubular appendage down from the ceiling, he held it over her and a red light burst from it and traveled up and down her body.

'He better not be taking pictures,' she thought,

The appendage slid back up to the ceiling and an image of her skeletal and muscle structure appeared on a screen. Samael tapped a few buttons and seemed to be making a few observations. After a small amount of time he turned off the screen.

Soon he motioned for her to stay on the table, Anna didn't really think it was necessary for him to tell her that. In her condition where could she possibly go? The ice cream store? But she nodded anyway.

He walked out the exit, leaving Anna by herself.

Good, she needed to think. Why had she had that strange dream, and more importantly, why was Samael the one she could see the clearest. She'd only known him for five hours, that didn't exactly leave a lot of time for socializing among the killing, running, and looting.

Then there was the matter of his face, it hadn't been there. She was pretty sure he had a face though, who doesn't?

She knew one thing, because of that dream, part of her wanted to see his face. She didn't know why but though they were obviously like family, the other two seemed different from Samael.

Suddenly the door hissed open, interrupting her thoughts and letting in Samael with a rag and bowl of water. Well, actually the bowl was a hollowed out human skull with all the holes filled in.

He dipped the rag in the water and raised it to her shoulder,

"Wait!" she said raising her hand, "I can clea- AH!"

Pain lanced through her shoulder,

"Okay," she said through heavy breathing, "no I can't."

Samael tilted his head and gave her a look that almost seemed to say _was that really necessary?_

He then began cleaning each of her wounds, he wasn't exactly gentle but was kind enough to soften up if Anna let out a whimper or any other indication that he was being too rough.

She heard a loud ripping noise and looked up to see Samael holding some sort of gauze(Japanese bandage). He began by placing a small square cotton pad on the wound, then wrapping the gauze around her shoulder and did the same with her rib cage wound. When it came to her leg wound he asked her to lift up her leg, she was reluctant but she complied.

When it was all over, Samael nodded in satisfaction.

"Hey,"

He snapped out of his thoughts and turned to her,

"Can I have my clothes back?"

He stood there, tilting his head.

"Clothes," she said, gesturing to her bare body, "the things I wear?"

He seemed to understand that, he walked to the back of the room and retrieved her clothes for her.

She rapidly put her clothes back on, eager to cover herself again.

"Thanks," she said, "for helping me, again."

"Er elcom," he replied. This time she didn't even bother to look up, she was already used to his voice.

"Do you know how long I've been here?" she asked, though part of her believed the sentence she had just uttered would be a bit too much for Samael,

He took a moment, as if deep in thought about some unsolvable question.

Then he said, "Tree oors."(Three hours)

"Damn," she muttered, it was probably already dark outside.

Suddenly Samael shoved something in her face, she recoiled a bit but realized it was food, some sort of jerky. He gestured for her to take it.

Her stomach growled and she remembered she hadn't eaten since they joined up with the caravan, she was starving. She snatched the piece of jerky from the alien and quickly began to devour it bite by bite.

It tasted like a cross between elk and dog, yes she had eaten dog. Among other things.

When she finished devouring every last bite of the unique tasting meat, she decided it was time to leave.

"Well, this was fun, and I appreciate the help, but I have to leave now," she said,

She leapt off the table, forgetting her injuries. As soon as her feet impacted the ground, her legs gave away and she collapsed onto the floor.

"FUCK!" she screamed,

She felt useless, crippled, it was the worst feeling in the world.

She suddenly felt a hand touch her shoulder, she looked up to see that it belonged to Samael.

"Don ursh erself," he said in an almost consoling way. (Don't push yourself)

With a single swift motion he scooped her up bridal style and carried her as if she weighed no more than a feather.

Anna felt her face get hot, in her current position she had unintentionally touched Samael's pectoral. The problem was she felt no need to pull away, it felt just like it had in her dream. A small tingling feeling traveled up her spine as she continued to feel him. (That sounded wrong)

If he could feel her touching him, he gave no indication that he did.

Finally they walked out of the ship and back into the canyon, where Samael finally let her down.

She felt pain course through her leg as she struggled to stand, but she managed.

"ANNA!"

Anna turned only to have Trip collide in to her with a big bear hug, which of course brought her tumbling down onto the ground.

"Ow, Trip watch the shoulder! The shoulder!"

"I-I'm so glad to see you!" shouted the teenage girl,

Anna smiled and lovingly stroked the smaller girl's hair.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," she assured as she pushed herself up, "where are YinYang and Bear?"

"Having a talk with Titan and Dex,"

"Titan and Dex?" she asked as she stood up.

"Yeah, the big guy is Titan and the other is Dex because he's always messing around with his computer wrist thingy."

Anna led out a loud sigh, apparently a lot had happened during the time that she had been gone.

A large finger tapped her on the shoulder, she turned to see it had been Samael.

"What?" she asked,

He reached into a pouch on his waist and pulled out a long cylindrical item. He stretched out his arm towards Anna, then with a press of a button the cylinder shot out and became a full length spear.

"COOL!" squealed Trip,

Samael pressed the button again and the spear reassumed its collapsed state. He held it out to Anna.

At first she wasn't quite sure what he wanted her to do, he gestured to her with the spear again, until she finally took it from his hands.

With a stern nod, he placed a fist on his chest like a salute and tilted his head ever so slightly downwards.

She understood, he had presented her with a gift, a sign of respect.

"Thank you," she said,

"I WANT ONE TOO!" shouted Trip.

_Interesting fact: Samael is the name of an important Archangel in Talmudic lore; he is also regarded as both good and evil. He is said to be the Guardian angel of Esau and patron of the Roman Empire. In Jewish lore he is known as the angel of death and sometimes equitable to Satan._


	7. Chapter 7

You know to be honest I wasn't sure if my story would be well received or not. I'm glad it was. Thanks for the encouragement. This chapter may be a bit slow since it will contain little to no action on account that I want to develop the relationships of the characters.

Those of you who were wondering, I have been spending the last few weeks in school and developing my universe. You can't have a story without a universe to put it in. I'm not just talking about aliens and predators. I'm talking about humans, what they would do in this situation. I've also been developing factions, the one that I made, I'll introduce soon, is called "The Crusaders".

Also I've considered putting up a contest or two. Maybe, I don't really know.

Disclaimer: If I owned Aliens or Predators would I really be on this site?

Chapter 7

Getting to know one another

"And that's what happened," finished Bear, taking another gulp of tea from his mug.

After being patched up by Samael, Anna had made her way back to her own species. She had of course thanked Samael for his aid, she had to otherwise she'd never hear the end of it from Trip. After she had announced her recovery, Titan and Dex, names that suited them well, left the small camp to join their own companion.

Trip of course would not let them leave without all of them saying thanks. Trip herself had given both aliens a large bear hug. Something not even the bravest of them would have even considered doing after seeing the carnage they could cause.

Anna now sat against a large rock, a warm blanket draped around her shoulders and holding a tin can of warm tea.

"Well, I guess considering what happened. I'm lucky to be alive." she stated, taking a sip of her drink.

The fire crackling in the middle of the camp was a rather dangerous move but after what they'd been through, they had decided they deserved a little bit of extra comfort.

"I-I knew that our new friends would be helpful," boasted Trip, sticking her nose out in triumph.

"Oh shut up you silly child," said Anna,

"O-oooooh! Show them the cool thing that Sammy gave you!"

"What cool thing?" asked Bear,

Anna reached into her pant pocket and took out the collapsed spear, with a simple press of a button it extended itself out, boasting its sharp tips to all that laid eyes upon it.

"Cool," said YinYang,

"Why did he give it to you?" asked Bear, admiring the sleek metal frame of the weapon.

"I don't know, he just gave it to me then went back to his ship. No explanation at all."

"I-I hope he gives me something really cool!" squealed Trip,

Anna allowed herself a smirk at Trip's childish behavior and took another sip of her tea.

"What I can't understand is what they were doing in that cave in the first place," she stated,

"Perhaps they were looking for something, or they didn't like the raiders," suggested Bear,

"I-I think it's because they liked us," said Trip,

"Trip, we hadn't even met them before today," pointed out Anna, "you can't like someone you've never even heard of or met."

"W-well, you know what they say. E-enemy of my Enemy."

"That doesn't make it a friend," retorted Anna,

Trip rolled her eyes and gave Anna a "whatever" look.

"Well, for whatever reason they were in there it doesn't really matter. We'll head out in the morning and get back to civilization," ordered Anna, "then we can stop worrying about Bugs and raiders."

"Agreed, I would like to be somewhere safe after all of this," said Bear, letting out a large yawn and stretching out his arms.

"I'll take the first watch," suggested YinYang,

"No, I'll do it. I've already had a nap so I'm better rested then all of you," she said.

The others looked visibly concerned, Trip noticeably staring at the wounds along her body. Anna sighed,

"Hey, don't worry it's me. I once dragged myself through the Rocky Mountains with a dozen gashes and two acid burns. I'll be fine," she said reassuringly.

Knowing that she wouldn't be persuaded to do otherwise, they all headed towards the Stryker and went to sleep. Anna had the pleasant duty of sitting outside of the Stryker next to the fire, while trying to keep awake and holding her AK-74 close by.

Keeping a guard at night was extra important out in the wastelands. At night time was when the Bugs and Raiders were most active. If you were caught unaware of either creeping up on you, there would be no hope of escape, and those bugs were masters of stealth. You had almost no hope of catching one sneaking up on you until they grabbed you with their claws and impaled you with their tail.

Anna winced as she pain shot through her side while she propped herself up in a more comfortable position

Suddenly the alien ship behind her rumbled, she turned her head to get a look at what was going on. The ship had lowered its entrance down, letting a bright blue light illuminate most of the canyon.

From inside the ship, one of the aliens stepped out onto the ground. It took her a moment to realize it was Samael. He turned his head back and forth as if checking to see if anyone was around.

He didn't seem to see Anna staring at him as he pressed a few buttons on his wrist computer and the entrance closed. With that he walked off into the canyon exit, a bit of urgency in his step.

Anna flopped back to her seat, no reason to take unnecessary risks, if he wanted to die, fine by her. She waited a good five minutes for the curiosity to stop bugging her, it didn't.

"Damn it," she muttered, then limped off after him.

**"Why **did you give the Ooman the bad blood's spear?" asked Ta'veta, "don't we need it?"

"Indeed, I am also curious to know why you gave away our only means of tracking down our target Ak'shara," pressed L'hiem.

"I'll tell you when we're inside," he said, turning around and walking back into the ship.

They all headed to the central chamber, in it were a couple of chairs to rest on. A luxury that they all took readily.

"Alright," said L'hiem as he took off his mask "now tell us why you gave away the spear. It was our only way of tracking our target."

"The reason is very simple my comrades, we couldn't use it."

"What?" they both asked in unison.

"We can't use it," he repeated, Ak'shara stood up from his seat and walked over to a large computer. He tapped in a few commands and brought up a picture of the Ooman world onto the screen. The only problem with it was, it was a very bad picture.

"This is what I mean," he said gesturing to the screen.

"What's wrong with it?" asked Ta'veta, who was next to clueless when it came to technical work.

"Nothing is wrong with my equipment!" protested L'hiem defensively.

"I know there is nothing wrong with your computers or equipment L'hiem," sighed Ak'shara. L'hiem put his hands on his hips and looked very proud of the statement.

"But it's not working all the same."

L'hiem's proud visage immediately darkened.

"Something is jamming our signal," explained Ak'shara.

"That's impossible, nothing the Oomans have could possibly interfere with our technology. They are simply too primitive," protested L'hiem,

"Well that may be true, but I don't think this screen is fuzzy because it decided to take a break,"

"Have you tried hitting it?" asked Ta'veta,

"Yes," responded Ak'shara,

"Let me try," suggested Ta'veta as he hefted his hammer up.

"NO! It's been abused enough," shouted L'hiem,

Ta'veta lowered his hammer, visibly disappointed about not getting to hit something with it. Ak'shara shook his head, how did he ever end up with these two as his best friends?

"So what does this have to do with giving the female Ooman the Bad blood's spear?" asked Ta'veta,

"Well, even if he is a bad blood, he is still a Yautja. A Yautja that holds a spear has it become his most prized possession. He came here to hunt, we'll give them a hunt."

"What are you talking about?" asked L'hiem, obviously very confused.

"It's simple, the Oomans outside are obviously rather skilled and powerful warriors. One of them now holds the Bad Blood's spear. He'll already be coming back for it, but finding a band of worthy Ooman's to hunt will defiantly draw him in. It will be like predators to a carcass."

"You're using them as bait," realized Ta'veta,

"Well that's...actually a pretty good idea," admitted L'hiem,

"But they're our friends! We can't use them as bait!" protested Ta'veta.

"Ta'veta, we've known them for a day at most. I don't think we can be friends yet. On top of that they are Oomans."

"But the small one made expressions of friendship to us and you seem to enjoy their company as well!"

"Expression of friendship?"

"Yeah," said L'hiem, "it was weird."

"It was fascinating! Do you want me to show you!" asked Ta'veta, looking very eager to share his new found knowledge.

"No."

"Let me show you," said Ta'veta, completely obviously oblivious to Ak'shara's pervious statement. He stretched out his arms to start the expression.

"Ta'veta, stay aw- stay away!" said Ak'shara, backing up as his large friend got closer, "I-I'm warning you! Stay back, I'll wound you!"

"Come, it is fascinating to partake in," said the giant Yautja as he got closer,

"Come!"

"N-no"

"Get over-"

"Stay back-"

"Come o-"

"Back!"

"This is funny to watch."

"Back! Back!"

"But it's fun!"

"Away you clumsy oaf!"

Ak'shara unsheathed his wrist blades,

"I'm warning you Ta'veta, I'll hurt you!" he threatened, the words finally seemed to register through his thick skull and stopped his attempt at teaching Ak'shara.

"Now look, you can think of them as friends if you want to," said Ak'shara, "but they're just Oomans, prey for us to hunt. How could a Yautja ever be friends with an Ooman? They're a weak and primitive race."

"But you're an Ooman," pointed out Ta'veta,

That statement just crossed the line.

Ak'shara's shoulder burner suddenly sprung to life, the three dot targeting system placed on Ta'veta's forehead.

"Ak'shara, what are you doing?"

No response,

"Ak'shara, power down the burner," said Ta'veta, now beginning to back away.

"You might want to run now," commented L'hiem,

Ta'veta immediately bolted for the nearest exit and ran down the hall. Not daring to look back to see if his friend was about to kill him or not.

As soon as he heard the hiss of Ta'veta's door closing, Ak'shara powered down his burner. He sighed and plopped down into his chair, rubbing the temples of his head.

"That might have been a bit extreme Ak'shara."

"Leave me alone," was all he said.

L'hiem shrugged and trotted off to rest from the hard day of killing Oomans and tearing off their skins.

After L'hiem went off to bed, Ak'shara sat in the main chamber for a good hour. Eventually he took his mask off, revealing his ugly visage. The only thing good about it, was it proved he was a member of the clan.

He rubbed the unique mark on his forehead, he often did so as if he was reminding himself it was actually there.

Remembering he had taken a trophy today he walked off to the cleaning room, it was the place they took trophies to get all the skin and internal matter out. Inside the room were all sorts of unique tools, machines, and solvents for getting a nice shiny trophy.

He entered the room and immediately got to work. First he took a small but extremely sharp razor from the tool rack, the proceeded to cut a thin line across the top of the head from the back to the front. Next he took a pair of hooks and placed the tips under the skin and proceeded to tear it off.

He replaced the hooks and took a bottle of green liquid from a box, he opened it up and dripped a few drops onto the skull. The green liquid quickly took effect and dissolved all the blood and remaining skin and muscle matter. He particularly enjoyed watching the eyes dissolve.

Placing the bottle back he grabbed a hose connected to a machine, he inserted the hose into the skull via eye socket. He started up the machine and watched all the brain matter get sucked out of his trophy.

Finally he sprayed it with some steam and gave it a good cleaning with a cloth.

He examined his trophy and allowed himself a small grin of satisfaction. He placed it on his trophy rack and left the room to go do his daily duty.

Putting his mask back on ,he made his way out of the ship and exited the canyon, making sure that he did not disturb Ta'veta, L'hiem or any of the Oomans.

He made his way around the canyon walls until he found a suitable spot.

He took of his mask and placed it beside him as he sat down on the rocky ground. He tapped a button on his wrist and a holographic screen popped up. It acted like a mirror bearing his own reflection, he scowled at it. Why did he have to be this way?

Dismissing the thought he went back to the task at hand. He pressed another button on his computer and a small icon flashed in the upper right corner of the screen. He took a deep breath and began to speak.

"This is video log entry 50 of series 20. Location, Earth of the Oomans. The date is the 1514 revolution of the home planet and the 89th rotation."

"Today my brothers and I picked up the trail of the Bad Blood B'sak. But as it turned out, the pauk'de bad blood dropped his spear. It was picked up by a group of Oomans, such a dishonorable act."

"We have also made contact with a small band of Oomans, they are powerful warriors for their race. Skilled and ruthless, especially the leader. A female strangely enough, it is a shame she was born a human, for she would have made a formidable hunter in the Yautja culture."

"I've come up with a plan to use this small band of elite warriors to draw in the bad blood, as something is blocking our ability to scan the planet for him."

"The serpents are less active then I initially thought they would be. Perhaps they are not as stupid as we thought, they may be purposefully keeping the Oomans alive, I don't know."

"Ta'veta has taken a particular liking to the Oomans, especially the youngest, also a female. The fool, he has no idea what he's doing. The small Ooman is spirited, I'll give her that much. She approaches us without fear and does not flinch in the thick of battle. She would have been worthy prey."

"I personally hate being around these Oomans. Every time I look at them, I'm reminded of my own condition, of my own weakness. I wish I could purge myself of this taint, this cause of my weakness, but I cannot. I can only strive forward and hope for the best. I wonder if my mentor Ke'pa would be proud of me, probably not."

"Well, I think I've spent enough time here. I'll need rest for the next day. This is Ak'shara, Elite Hunter of the Dark Blade Clan."

With a press of a button the holographic screen turned off. Ak'shara sighed to himself, he didn't know why he continued to do this meaningless exercises, he just did. Maybe to give himself something to look back on, or share with others, he still did not have the answer.

The noise of rocks being disturbed suddenly snapped him out of his thoughts. He quickly grabbed his mask and replaced it on his face, his wrist blades shot out as he brought himself into a proper fighting stance.

He saw a figure rounding the wall of the canyon, it turned and he saw it was...the female Ooman?

**Anna** increased her speed as she heard the noise get closer. It was a mixture of what she could tell was talking and a sort of electrical discharge. Just around the corner she caught the distinct glow of red light before it was suddenly shut off.

She tried to quietly creep towards the light, carefully making sure to try and not give away her position.

Suddenly her foot knocked against a rock and sent it tumbling into other rocks, causing a loud clacking sound.

She cursed her own clumsiness, she heard the whine of powering up machinery and knew she had been found out. Might as well come out into the open.

She walked out into the open to see Samael with his weapons raised and ready. She immediately held up her hands so she wouldn't be shot or get her spine torn out by the alien.

As soon as the alien saw that it was her it immediately relaxed, its weapons going back into their sheathes.

"Hey," she said awkwardly,

The alien gave her a nod of acknowledgement, then turned away and stared off into the wasteland.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, he didn't respond.

'Okay, crossing language barriers. Not one of my strengths' she thought to herself.

The alien sat down on the ground, bracing itself against the ground like one would while they were day dreaming. She quietly tip toed over to him until she was right next to him, she looked out at the same direction he did and tried to see what he saw. She didn't succeed.

She turned to look at the alien next to her, you could tell a lot about a person by just looking at them. He had incredibly broad shoulders and huge bicep muscles. His skin defiantly looked like it felt, leathery. She could tell that he was in deep thought, resting in a crouched position with his hand on his right knee.

"Why are you out here?" she asked finally, "don't want to sleep?"

Samael silently turned his head and looked at her through his blank mask, as if making his observation, then nodded his head.

"Yeah me neither," she said, plopping down beside him, "I usually just stay awake to let the days event's sink in. Even after all these years, I still need a bit of time to reflect on what I've done. You ever do that?"

Samael nodded slowly though didn't seem to really be paying too much attention.

"You know what just occurred to me?"

Samael tilted his head, almost like saying, _'what?'_

"I haven't really introduced myself to you, even though you've saved my life…how many times?"

Samael took a moment to think, then held up 3 fingers.

"Hm, well I'll fix that right now," she decided,

"I'm Anna," she said, then held out her hand.

The alien looked at her hand curiously, obviously very confused on what to do. It had never occurred to Anna that the alien wouldn't know what the gesture meant. She felt stupid now that she thought about it.

"It's called a handshake among humans, it's for greetings," she tried to explain, hoping that the alien's understanding of her language would help her.

It must have because he nodded then took her hand and gently shook it, it was a bit of an awkward shake as his hand was much bigger then hers.

"Aaarna," he said, he was obviously trying to say her name.

"Anna,"

"Arna," he tried again,

"Close enough," she said, pleased that she could teach a 7ft tall alien how to say her name. That was accomplishment #1 for the day.

"Do you like doing what you do?" she asked suddenly, Samael looked confused.

"You know, killing things and people," she explained,

Samael nodded his head, yes. Then pointed a finger at her, she understood it meant is she shared the same idea.

"Me? Not so sure" she said with a sigh as she tucked legs in, "I don't really like killing, it's not fun or anything. But I don't really mind doing it either, kind of gotten used to doing it."

"Why do you even take skulls anyway? And what's with skinning people and hanging them up?" she asked suddenly,

"Truphry," replied Samael,

"trophies? Is that why you kill?" she asked,

Samael nodded, he almost seemed proud about it. Anna's initial reaction was that she was sickened but remembered not to judge, she herself had been prided with her ability to kill many years back when she was in the army. He was basically doing the same thing, only for a different army and cause.

"I guess I can understand, it kind of reminds me of these people I read about in Africa, I think they took trophies too, or am I thinking about the Native Americans? Hm, don't remember really. I went hunting with my grandfather once, took down a Bear. Grandpa let me take its head as a trophy."

Samael nodded thoughtfully, as if approving that some humans followed the same way.

"Of course my father wasn't happy until I joined the army,"

Samael's head perked up at that statement.

"Yeah, my father. Never was happy with anything I did," she whispered so quite only she and Samael could hear her talk, her head hung low as if she remembered something she didn't want to.

"Recognition?" asked Samael,

Anna perked up at the question. It was the first word that she had heard him say, that didn't sound like someone talking with a broken wind pipe.

She nodded her head.

"Yeah, I guess that's why I got this way. Guess I should be glad, it became useful afterwards."

**Ak'shara** didn't know what to think. Never in all his life did he think he would find an Ooman with the same goal as him, recognition. The thing he craved the most.

From what he understood, she had joined her species military in order to please her sire. Ak'shara didn't know what it was like to have a sire that was disappointed with one; he didn't even know who his sire was. He wish he did.

Strangely he began to feel slightly closer to this female Ooman, he and her were not so different. Not just because they shared a similar face, but because they both had strived for the same goal. The only difference was she had already succeeded.

That thought made him feel depressed. Even an Ooman could do better than him, was he truly that incompetent?

Before he could continue his thoughts, a noise broke through the air. Out on the wide open land, six lights, belonging to Ooman vehicles were closing in.

**Anna **heard the motorcycles as soon as Samael did. The alien warrior next to her looked ready to kill some more humans by tearing out their skulls and beating them to death with it while they were still alive.

The way he casually took out his menacing looking spear was almost like saying, "more humans? Sure, I have a few empty spots on my trophy rack."

Anna grabbed the pair of mini binoculars hanging around her neck. There were about six or more motorcycles, some carrying two people but most just carrying one.

They seemed quite well armed, most had a two handed gun on their back and what looked like some sort of armor. The most distinct characteristic of the group was the large red cross they all had on their chest.

Anna let out a small sigh.

"Crusaders, perfect," she mumbled,

Samael looked to her for an explanation.

"Listen, could you just hide and not kill these people? Please?"

Samael let out a small growl and was obviously reluctant to comply, but eventually did. He tapped a button on his computer and disappeared from sight.

The roar of the motorcycles became louder as the Crusaders finally reached Anna's position.

The front crusader, the one that seemed to be leading the group, stepped off his bike and walked over to Anna. He wore a long gray duster jacket; it was well worn and had a few tears in it. Under it he wore what looked like thin sheets of metal attached to his shirt in order to provide as a sort of make shift armor, it looked vaguely similar what motocross riders used to wear before the Bug war.

"Hello," said the one at the front of the group, "I am John, a knight of The Crusaders. Are you the group of mercenaries that accompanied the caravan earlier today?"

"I'm part of them," she replied, "the others I over in the canyon."

"We were told that you were attacked by a large and organized group of raiders headed by a, Boss Conner?"

"Yes, that is correct. But don't worry, we dealt with them, they won't be bothering anymore caravan's anymore," she said, a bit of pride rode her words.

"You, killed them? All of them?"

"Yes, it was pretty hard considering we were outnumbered ten to one but we managed."

"Well, uh, wow. I guess you don't really need our help," said the knight with his mouth gaping at her, "do you need an escort back to town?"

"No thank you, we'll make do," she said politely,

"Well alright, you should stop by the Crusader post at the town, we're a little short on hands and could use reliable people like you," said the knight, giving her a small smile.

"I'll keep it in mind," she replied,

"Bye," he finally said, then turned back to his men, "Crusader's we're heading back to town!"

The roar of their bikes echoed throughout the night air once again as they sped off into the distance. As soon as they were out of sight, Samael appeared out of thin air, his glaive close by his side. He pointed out to where the Crusaders had gone off to, a few clicks and growls emitting from his throat.

"Them? They're part of the Crusaders. Got put together by the Christian Church, and tries to bring order to what's left of our race. One of the bigger powers left in the world. They mean well but they don't always make things right. Most people tolerate them just for the protection," she explained, though when she finished, she realized he probably didn't understand half the things she just said.

Even if he did, he gave no indication, instead he just nodded.

"You're really easy to talk to, do you know that?"

Samael gave her another one of his blank stares then turned away to head back to the camp.

"Yeah, good night to you too," she muttered, she started her own walk back to camp when suddenly pain shot up her leg and gave out from beneath her.

"F%#! F%#! F%#!" she shouted, she tried to brace herself on her rifle and use it like a crutch but was very unsuccessful.

"Damn it, I feel so useless," she muttered to herself, suddenly a pair of strong arms scooped her up from the dirt. She looked up to see Samael, carrying her just as he had when he had her in his ship.

"Thanks…again," she said,

"Er elcom."


	8. Chapter 8

Hey, thanks for reading. Life's been pretty harsh for me right now, its Thanksgiving break for me but I got slightly sick. Don't worry; I'm not actually sick, I haven't been sick for about 5 years. It's just every now and then I get the first few symptoms, headache, stuffy or runny nose, that sort of thing. It's just making me a little slow in the writing department. I apologize to those who enjoy the gory action filled moments but the next few chapters may not have too many of those, this is a time to develop the relationships of the characters. When you watch Romeo and Juliet, you don't expect them to be all, "Oh I love you Juliet!" "I love you Romeo." "Now I'm going to go kill you cousin!"

Seriously, you don't do that.

(On a side note, I enjoy romantic stories. Don't make fun of me because I'm a boy.)

In any case, a new character is coming up pretty soon. I'm also considering making a parallel story to this one. Give me your thoughts and I'll appreciate it.

Another thing, I'll be using Alien sub-types that some may not be familiar with, I haven't decided which. The reason for this is because I feel that the aliens would eventually develop more powerful strains after fighting humans for so long. I mean they're awesome, but if they fight a tank they're gonna be in trouble. So in order for people not to get confused when I do this thing, I suggest any reader go to Xenopedia, it's like a Wikipedia totally dedicated to AVP. It's awesome, go check it out.

Disclaimer: If I owned Predator or Aliens, I'd be a lot older then I am now. I'm in High School, enough said.

Chapter 8

Okay, we're finally Home (cheer)

After a restful night for the four mercenaries, they packed up their fairly gained loot and hit the road. They were headed towards Fairfax County; the county had been hit by a ballistic missile barrage. It had cleared out the bugs and had left most of the building intact. It was one of the few places that was considered "Safe" in the waste land.

The place was under Crusader protection, which meant there were at least a platoon of knights stationed there, all well trained and well-armed. In the wasteland, that was considered a blessing from god. The fifteen foot tall wall made of scrap metal helped too.

Anna stood in the back of the Stryker, sorting through the boxes of looted weapons and putting them on the various weapons racks they had on the Stryker's walls. She took out a sawed off double barrel shotgun, she shook her head. It was in good condition and seemed to work well but it was hardly useful, they could probably sell it to the Crusader's for money.

Even though no one in the wastes really needed money, the Crusader's had made it a point to reintroduce the concept to people. According to rumor, they had found an old money printing machine and used it to make fresh bills. Fair Fax was just one of the towns under Crusader protection that had been forced to use the useless concept. Still, it was a small price to pay for the knights, and in a way it helped people more than it hurt. People no longer had to give away their own supplies for supplies, which was a good thing.

She finally finished sorting out all of the looted firearms when the sound of YinYang's sniper rifle went off.

"What's he doing up there?" she asked Bear, who was up front driving the Stryker,

"He's just having his relaxing time, don't worry, he's using the bullets from his own personal stash," replied the big man.

"Oh," she said, turning back to the boxes, suddenly the sound of one of the alien's shoulder cannons went off.

"Are the alien's up there?" asked Anna,

"Y-yup!" said Trip, poking her head in from the turret hole in the ceiling,

"Trip don't hang upside down, it's bad for you," warned Anna,

"O-okay," said Trip, popping back up and not really paying much attention to the warning.

The sound of a sniper rifle echoed through the air again, followed with the sound of the alien shoulder cannon firing.

"O-oooooh! Nice shot Dex!" squealed Trip enthusiastically, a moment later there was a light growl.

Anna sighed; Trip's obsession with her new friends had only grown stronger after last night. When Samael had carried her back to camp bridal style, Trip was up to relieve herself. As soon as she saw the two she immediately jumped to quite a few conclusions, most of which were completely outlandish.

Her conclusions were mostly, "S-Sammy had to save you again didn't he?" and "(Gasp) Y-you two were out taking a romantic stroll together?" and of course, "Did you two go find a bush far away from here and carve the moaning statue?"

Anna's face turned bright red at the memory of that very awkward situation; it had taken every fiber of her self-control to not strangle the girl.

Up on top of the Stryker, the three large aliens crouched down on their knees next to the two humans. YinYang loaded another magazine into his WA2000 sniper rifle. The sniper rifle was his pride and joy and the man rarely felt pride in his abilities or his weapons. He had had this rifle long before the Bug wars and had cared for it ever since.

He made sure every day that it was clean and had the best working parts available. More bugs and men had died under the gaze of its scope, then any other gun in their armory. Trip enjoyed calling the gun Walter, he didn't know why.

YinYang sighted another drone crawling across the plain of the wasteland, combined with the bug's speed and the speed of their vehicle; it would be a tough shot. YinYang sucked in his breath and tuned out all other sounds, focusing only on the animal in his scope. He squeezed the trigger and watched through the scope as the .308 round tore through the bug's skull, sending out a spray of its acidic blood.

The alien next to him, the tallest, gave a throaty growl and a nod of approval. His shoulder cannon powered up and three beams of light shot out of the right of his mask.

Through his scope YinYang could see the three beams of light trailing a bug that had been scurrying behind the one he had just shot.

A second later the tall alien, Titan, fired his gun and burned a gaping hole through the bug's midsection.

Titan's brother, the second tallest, gave it an affectionate slap on the back. Dex powered up his own shoulder cannon, it was of different design then his brother's but seemed to bear the same concept. His targeting lasers trailed a bug leading two others behind it, Dex's cannon began to spin and give off a high pitched whining sound, then unleashed a burst of three shots.

The drones dropped like pins as each shot hit its mark, the last shot had been a bit off but had blown off both of the drone's legs. Dex let out a satisfactory growl.

The shortest gave him a small push, as if saying "don't get too cocky."

He powered up his own cannon and sighted down a Praetorian, most likely checking what was killing all their hive's workers. His cannon began to glow a bright blue, it gave off a slowly rising sound as it began to power up, and then unleashed it in one brilliant blue bolt. The bolt tore through the Praetorian's head, tearing off a good chunk of the top half of its head.

"What is going on out here?" asked Anna, popping her head up from the turret hole.

"O-oh ya, know guy fun. K-killing bugs in the hardest way possible then bragging about it," explained Trip,

"Who's got the best so far?"

"Samael, he killed one of the Praetorians."

"Really?" asked Anna before popping back down into the turret hole. Samael gave Trip a questioning stare. She soon popped back up, carrying with her an RPG.

She aimed down the scope and sighted another Praetorian, surrounded by about four other drones. She took careful aim, remembering to take into account the wind, the car's speed, the Coriolis Effect and the speed of the bugs, nothing too hard.

She pulled down on the trigger and let the rocket fly; it flew true and impacted right against the Praetorian, taking down the four drones that had been misfortunate enough to stand next to it.

"There, I think I win," said Anna confidently, and then dropped back into the Stryker.

**Ak'shara **stared at the explosion for some time before coming back to his senses. It had been a good shot; admittedly she had won the small competition they had been having.

"That was impressive," said Ta'veta, breaking the silence.

"You were correct Ak'shara, that female Ooman is indeed quite a warrior," said L'hiem,

"I said no such thing," protested Ak'shara.

"Yes you did," accused Ta'veta, "you spoke of her as if she were a Yautja female among the serpents."

"You can prove nothing,"

"Yes, we can. I have a recording," said L'hiem, holding up his wrist computer.

"Just leave me alone," grumbled Ak'shara,

"There it is again," pointed out Ta'veta.

"I will hurt you," warned Ak'shara, Ta'veta held up his hands in surrender.

"Ak'shara?" squeaked L'hiem,

"What?"

"What did the female's body look like?"

Ak'shara felt his face heat up. Another thing he hated about himself, whenever he was asked something embarrassing or did something humiliating, his face turned a very bright red. It had been the subject of much teasing during his unblooded days.

"Why do you ask?" he asked shakily

"I just wish to know, is it similar to a Yautja female's anatomy?"

"Umm…"

His mind flashed back to the night he had had the Ooman female in his medical room. At the time he had not really paid any attention to the female's body. He had seen an Ooman's body before, but never so…bare.

"Does she have milk glands?" asked L'hiem,

"Uh…er…yes," he replied awkwardly.

"Oooh, are they like our females milk glands?"

"What the pauk are you asking me for?" erupted Ak'shara, "I've never seen a Yautja or Ooman female's milk glands."

"Ah yes, you and Ta'veta are still 'inexperienced'" said L'hiem,

Ak'shara sighed; he just had to bring that up. L'hiem was the only one of the group who had been with a female, a fact that he brought up every chance he had gotten. Ak'shara was a bit jealous to tell the truth but he kept that to himself, no need for L'hiem's head to get any bigger. Besides, the female he had rutted wasn't exactly pretty, well according to Ta'veta and L'hiem she was but to Ak'shara she wasn't. He just didn't see what they saw in her.

"Tell me, did you find her body attractive?" asked Ta'veta, suddenly very interested in the topic.

"I refuse to answer that question."

"Why?"

"Because that's like asking an elder if you can have his spear,"

Ta'veta was silent for a moment, the said, "it is not! Those are two completely different things!"

Ak'shara had been hoping he wouldn't catch on to that.

"Well I-. Oh, look, we're at the human city. Time to go."

Ta'veta and L'hiem turned their heads towards the front of the vehicle, the human city was indeed coming closer but it was still a good ways off, much too far away for any Oomans to see them.

Before either of them could protest, Ak'shara had already cloaked himself and jumped of the vehicle. Both of them gave no argument, as both knew that Ak'shara could be very stubborn when he wanted to. Without further trouble the two of them cloaked and followed their friend off the vehicle.

"**H-hey! C-come back!"** shouted Trip as the three aliens jumped of their vehicle.

"Trip, you had to know they were eventually going to have to leave. There's no telling how people would respond to them," said Anna,

"I-I'm sure they would have welcomed them just like we did," said Trip.

"I really doubt it. We barely trust other humans now a days, much less some strange alien with enough fire power to take on a five platoons of raiders," she responded,

"Y-you have no faith," accused Trip,

"And you have no brain,"

"Ah! I-I can't believe you said that! I'm your sweet little sister mechanic! How can you treat me like this?" pouted Trip as she put on her best puppy dog face.

(Let's all take a moment to imagine that…awwwww, so cute. I feel my manliness fading.)

Anna sighed and patted Trip on the head affectionately. "Trip, I keep telling you; we're not sisters."

"Y-yeah, but it makes me feel better to think that way," said Trip as she gave the woman a hug.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be back," said Anna comfortingly, at least she hoped they'd be. After all that Samael had done for her, she felt like she owed him; and she wasn't the kind to leave debts unpaid. Plus, she still wanted to see his face, she didn't know why but the subject had been gnawing at her for some time now.

"Come on, you're getting dusty up here. It's time to go back inside," she commanded, Trip obeyed without hesitation and dropped down the hole.

"You coming?" asked Anna.

YinYang shook his head. "I like it up here."

Anna shrugged, and then dropped down after Trip. She saw that the young girl had immediately gone back to tinkering with some of the thing she had found in Boss Conner's cave, while humming a small tune.

"We'll be arriving at Fair Fax in about ten minutes," announced Bear,

It felt good to be back to civilization. With people not trying to kill them on a daily basis (more like on a semi-daily basis), food within easy reach, and a thick sturdy fifteen foot tall wall standing between them and the Bugs.

"It'll be good to be back, I'm sure Mick has missed us" she joked,

"T-that old geezer, he never misses us. O-only the stuff we bring him," muttered Trip,

"I hope he hasn't found my stash of Vodka, the Scottish bastard can drink enough alcohol to drown a man," said Bear.

"Why do you care, it's not like the stuff would be cold," pointed out Anna,

"Vodka is Vodka, no matter how you drink it," responded Bear, letting out a loud laugh.

They soon arrived at Fair Fax, the wall casting a much appreciated shadow over them. Along the top of it sat at least a dozen armed guards, that alone was usually enough to deter any trouble makers.

"Passport?" shouted one of the guards.

YinYang, who was still on top of the Stryker, reached into his pocket and pulled out his passport, it was a simple piece of laminated paper bearing a red cross with admittedly impressive patterns.

The guard nodded and signaled for the gates to open. With a loud screech of metal, the gates were pulled open and the Stryker drove in. Anna sat shotgun as they started to pull into the town. She saw the various stands people had setup, a few cook fires were off to the side of the streets with many people huddle around them.

Crusader Knights and Squires patrolled the streets, each bearing a red cross on their clothing.

A few shady characters stood out in front of a rundown building, most likely part of a gang. The city had dozens of them. A few of them spotted Anna and shouted some rude comments, most asking how much she was. She gave them the finger.

The people had few cars, but she saw a few driving around the streets. The nice thing about having a car with a big gun on it, you never had to worry about traffic.

Along the way they passed the bar called "Babes & Booze", Anna scowled when she saw the place. Many women with no money and nowhere to go went to try and get a job there, either as a whore or barmaid, but there really wasn't much of a difference between the two. Out front were a few women in very revealing clothing, and when she said revealing, she meant bikini revealing, hell some were even more revealing.

(Not sure how you can do that, but it really sets the tone for the place.)

A man, looked to be in his late twenties, was chatting one of the girls up. She gave what looked like a genuine giggle as the man told her some joke. He was apparently asking for her 'services'.

Finally they arrived at their house, an old auto shop in the very middle of the town. It was fairly large; it had two garages so their Stryker fit fine and had two stories high. The Crusader's allowed residents to take whatever precautions they wanted to feel safe, provided they were in reason. Their house's safety precaution was a 10ft tall wall of concrete with razor wire covering the top and a very angry and crazy old Irish man.

They pulled up their Stryker to the pair of large iron doors. Mick had apparently added a sign to the door, it read "trespassers will be shot, survivors will be shot twice."

"Mick, it's Anna!" shouted the Russian woman, "let us in you old geezer!"

Immediately the pair of doors began to open and Bear drove the Stryker in to the complex. The garage door was opened up as they rolled the Stryker towards the building. Inside the garage was a large assortment of spare parts for the Stryker, wheels, engine parts, windshields, and plating.

"Damn ye girl! I was havin meself a pleasant nap till ye woke me up!" shouted a deep voice in a very heavy Scottish accent.

Anna jumped out of the Stryker to confront the man. Mick walked out from his office right next to the garage, he was just a bit shorter then Bear, he had large muscles from doing many years of hard labor, but was also pretty thick around the stomach area. He had hair the color of fire but was starting to bald in the front, he also bore a large scruffy beard that made Anna wonder how he ate.

"Well that's why we had the speaker system installed, if we didn't we'd have been waiting out there the entire day," she retorted as she unloaded the loot from their trip.

"Bah! Have you no respect for you elders?"

"Y-you're not an elder," jumped in Trip, "y-you're just some old guy."

"Girl, with god as my witness, I swear one day that tongue of yours is going to getch ya into more trouble than ye bargained for," threatened Mick,

Trip stuck her tongue out at him, he shook his head as he walked over to inspect the Stryker, his eyes carefully scanning the vehicle for any imperfection.

"Hm, well at least ya didn't bring her back in pieces. Not too bad this time around, just needs some cleaning and gas," he summarized,

"I-I fixed the turret while we were out there!" bragged Trip,

"Bah! It probably took you ya three hours,"

"F-for your information, it took me only 1 hour and 45 minutes," she shot back, "y-you try working out there with limited supplies and tools."

"Hah! You bet your ass I could have done it in half the time! But I wasn't there, so too bad!"

"Y-you can't be out there because your too old,"

"I'm not out there because of my leg," corrected Mick, pointing down to the brace on his right leg. According to Mick, he had participated in the Bug war and had had his leg torn up so much it was beyond repair. It caused him to walk with a limp, something that would get a person killed out in the wastes.

"Ha! E-excuses, excuses!" yelled Trip before skipping up the stairs.

Mick sighed then took a swig of beer from his personal flask. "You ought to give that little one a good spanking one of these days!"

"I would, but I'd never be able to catch her," said Anna,

"Bah!" he said before taking another swing.

Anna packed up all the spare loot into a bag. "I'm going to the market to sell this stuff, see you later."

Mick gave a nod before going back to checking out the Stryker. Anna holstered her Makarov pistol and strapped her rifle to her back, never hurt to be too careful. She swung the pack of loot on her back and headed out the front door.

She had just opened the front gate when suddenly YinYang appeared next to her, wearing his black sun glasses.

"Ah! YinYang, don't do that! You scared the bejesus out of me!" she yelled, "Are you coming with me?"

He nodded.

"Fine, let's go," she said before putting on her own sunglasses.

(Yeah, they look badass now!)

The dusty wind whistled through the streets and across Anna's face, her short hair dancing on her head. Anna scowled; wind was usually the first sign of a storm. It was usually just a sandstorm, but every now and then a rainstorm would come along. Of course those were rather uncommon now days, and judging by the sky it was going to be just another sandstorm.

The marketplace was just a couple of blocks from their house, so they arrived fairly quickly. The entire place was a filled with wooden stands built where buildings used to stand.

The place was filled with various merchants and caravans selling their wears or scavengers selling things they'd found in the wasteland. Off to the side was a makeshift animal pen, full of cows and pigs and chickens.

Many citizens were bartering at the stands, some of the people were around to make a quick steal in crowd, and some were waiting to steal from the people who left.

Anna and YinYang made their way to the Blake Brother's caravan stand, the best supplier for weapons in the waste land, or so they said.

Anna swung her loot filled pack onto the stand's counter with a loud thump.

"I've got guns if you're willing to buy," she said,

The man behind the stand made a quick check in the bag, a smile made its way to his lips when he looked.

"Well ma'am, you can either trade for any guns you see behind this counter or I can pay you in Crusader dollars, your choice."

Despite their claims, the caravan's selection paled compared to their own. Anything they had, Anna's armory already had or had something better. She took the cash and some boxes of ammo.

On the way back they stopped by a food stand and bought a few pounds of steak, she let YinYang carry that.

By now the winds had picked up even more and strangely enough, clouds were starting to form in the sky.

"Looks like we're finally gonna have rain," said a stand tender, he pulled a pair of large buckets from under the stand and placed them on the roof.

The two mercenaries started to make their way back home, eager to finally call it a day, have a hot meal and drop into bed.

As they rounded a corner into an alley (that's never a good idea) a few shady looking characters seemed to start following them. Anna gave a glace over to YinYang, he nodded. As they continued down the street more and more men seemed to be joining the group behind them, soon there were about four men at their back.

Suddenly a group of three men popped out from a corner, all wielding some sort of melee weapon, except for the middle who carried a pistol.

"Hey there friends," said the man with the gun, "whatcha ya got in the pack?"

"Things," replied Anna,

"How's about you put it on the ground, along with those nice guns you got?"

"No can do," she said, her voice cool and devoid of any fear. The men seemed to be slightly unnerved that these two weren't intimidated by their presence and weapons.

The middle man raised his pistol at them.

"I wasn't asking," he said,

Anna took a moment to size this man up; he was a full head taller than her and had messy long hair. He might have sounded like he knew what he was doing, but she could tell he wasn't experienced with a gun. His grip was too loose; his eyes crossed and uncrossed themselves, something that beginners did before they learned to focus out of one eye. Anna fought hard not to smirk.

"All right," she said, she swung the bag from her back and crouched down to place it on the street. As she did she suddenly tore a concealed knife from her waist and threw it at the man on the right. It sailed through the air and lodged itself in his forehead.

YinYang sprang into action as one of the men behind them lashed out with an axe, YinYang sidestepped the clumsy attack. The man's head snapped back as YinYang launched a kick at him, then grabbed the axe and wrenched it from his hands. Another man came at him with a knife; YinYang swung his stolen weapon and lopped off the man's head.

Faster than the other two men could react, Anna jumped after her knife and tore it from the dead man's cranium. Following through with her movement she used a reverse handgrip and brought the knife across the middle man's throat, a spray of blood fountained out of his neck as the blade sliced clean through his flesh. The last man, too stunned to even move, had the blade shoved up from under his jaw and into his brain.

YinYang blocked an incoming overhead blow from a lead pipe, and then broke the man's right leg by kicking it in the knee. The man screamed as he crumpled to the ground, it was soon silenced as YinYang brought it down his axe on the man's head. Another man came at him from the side, eager to take advantage of his companion's misfortune. Unable to free his axe in time, YinYang let go of the axe and caught the man's attack by his wrists, seeking to catch his opponent of guard YinYang pushed his enemy back. As the man tried to recover he kicked his left leg out from under him, sending the man in an awkward crouched position. Without a moment's hesitation, YinYang lashed out with his foot kicked the man's neck against the wall, crushing his windpipe and killing him instantly.

The last man wisely decided to run from the two dangerous mercenaries. He almost made it to the end of the alley before a knife lodged itself into the back of his head.

Anna calmly walked over to the body and retrieved her knife and cleaned it on the clothes of the dead man.

"Why are people so stupid?" she asked aloud,

**Ak'shara **had watched Anna and the other Ooman easily kill their attackers; they hadn't even fired a single shot from their burners.

A loud clapping noise cracked overhead, a storm was going to start soon. He took a moment to watch the female Ooman again. She was everything he could not be, a leader, an esteemed warrior among her kind, and one who could hold her head up with pride.

A small pang of sadness struck his heart, he truly was incompetent. But that was why he was on this hunt, to prove his worth. He continued watching the female Ooman as she walked back to her living quarters, the way she moved was almost hypnotic.

Ak'shara shook his head, why should such things concern him? He had more important things to think about, like becoming elder of the clan.

Being elder, a pleasant thought.

"Things will change," he whispered,

"Things will change."

**Important:**

Okay guys, how was that chapter? A little slow but I managed to fit in a bit of action. Now, for those of you, who care to listen to what I have to say, please listen to me now!

I need help.

Yes you read right, I need help. Seriously, what I need are mutated animals. I know what you're thinking, "you've already got Aliens!"

I know, but I feel that I should have more than just the aliens. I mean the world has been nuked to pieces, I feel something should mutate. So what I want is for you to message me your ideas.

Send it in in this format:

**Name:**

**Description:**

**Former existence:**

**Mentality (Travel in packs? Loner? Etc.) :**

I'd also like you to give me some ideas for factions. Before you ask, I have already thought of some, but it helps to have help. Do it like this; I'll use the Crusaders as an example.

**Title: Crusaders**

**Cause: The rebuilding of civilization and safety of the innocent. Bring death to the wicked ones; spread the word of god to all. Purge the earth of Satan's taint (Aliens).**

**Technological strength: High (fully automatic weapons, useable vehicles, production facilities)**

**Size: State superpower (112,579 active members)**

**(Small: 25-500, Medium: 500-1000, Large: 1000-5000, Very Large: 5000-10,000, that's the highest you're allowed to go. I'm going to make up the other State Superpowers)**

**Inspiration: Christian Church, Medieval Crusaders**

**Uniform: Practically anything as long as it has a red cross**

**Motto: "We are the hand of God, bringing justice to the land and its people!"**

**Other facts: (I'm tired, so I'm not going to write this)**

**Pros: Strong Military, Access to high grade technology, controls vital pre-war factories**

**Cons: Mixed feelings from the public, almost a dictatorship, Moral is dropping**

Feel free to add in anything else you feel you should mention. Remember, they can be strong and big, but they can't be strong enough to challenge the Crusaders. I'm going to do that myself. Give it a lot some thought, I don't want something you come up with on the spot. Your faction needs at least one major problem. I prefer you message me instead of putting it in the reviews, because if you put it in the reviews, it will spoil the surprise.

Anyway, remember to review. Those are the only things that are keeping me going, so if you stop, I might stop. (Gasp!)

I'm kidding, but seriously, review. It helps me.


	9. Chapter 9

What's up guys and gals? ...Okay, that was really lame. Anyway, I have an announcement to make to all my wonderful readers (that's you) mark your calendars for December 18th, why you may ask? Well, because that's the day I head out for China. You see that's the day winter break starts, and my dad wants me to go to China. I would personally rather stay at home and write stories and read fan fiction but I am still just a high school student, so I don't have a say in the matter. Yeah… I'll be MIA for about 2 weeks, and then I'll start school again. Sucks, I know.

If you're desperate for something to read, check my favorite stories list, they're all good reads.

Chapter 9

What do you like to do during a storm?

Anna and YinYang continued their walk back home. They had left the street thugs bodies in the alley, people died on a regular basis so no one would question why some bodies were laying around.

Anna now turned her attention to the weather. The winds were starting to pick up and the sky was starting to be covered with ominous dark clouds. There was defiantly a storm on its way. By now Mick was putting out the large tubs in order to catch all the rain water.

It was rather rare to have rain in these times, so whenever it came around, people took advantage of it. Already people on the streets were putting out anything that could hold water for them, bowls, cups, buckets, anything.

Suddenly Anna felt something wet hit her forehead, as if someone suddenly flipped a switch, rain started pouring down from the sky. People started cheering as the life giving substance fell from the sky.

Anna let a smirk find its way on her lips. She her fingers through her now wet hair, let the moisture soak in through her skin. She had always enjoyed the rain; it felt wonderful on her skin, soaking into her clothes.

(I know what you are imagining, I won't judge you, I'm imagining it right now too... wow)

They soon arrived back at their little haven. As she walked through the door, Anna saw a flicker of movement on the roof top. She squinted her eyes, trying to pick out what she had seen. When nothing presented itself, she dismissed it as being some stray cat.

"Could it have been…" she wondered out loud, "…probably not."

Mick had already put out the four large tubs they used to collect rain water, each of them were already a third of the way full.

"Y-yay! It's raining!" screamed Trip as soon as she saw Anna.

"Quiet girl!" shouted Mick from under the Stryker, "hand me my wrench!"

Trip reached into Mick's tool box and took out his wrench then held it out for him. He reached for it blindly from under the Stryker. As he got closer, Trip suddenly whisked it away, then held it back out, then whisked it away again.

"Damn it Girl! Give me my wrench or I swear I'll put you out in the rain!" threatened Mick,

"Hmph!" said Trip before finally handing Mick his wrench; the old Scottish man muttered something from under the vehicle as he went to work.

"Where is Bear?" asked Anna,

"M-making dinner, the old one was getting hungry," said Trip, jabbing a thumb at Mick,

"I-AM-NOT-OLD!" screamed Mick,

"What's all the commotion?" asked Bear as he came down the stairs.

Anna had to stifle a laugh, for the large man was wearing an apron with flower patterns all across it.

"Trip and Mick are having another one of their bonding sessions," explained Anna,

"Oh, did you buy any food while you were out?" asked Bear, in response YinYang pushed the bag full of meat into the big man's arms, and then walked upstairs.

Bear looked in the bag and nodded with satisfaction, then walked back upstairs. A few minutes later the sound of cooking meat echoed through the building.

"I'm gonna go take a shower," announced Anna, "Trip don't make trouble with Mick, Mick, teach the girl right from wrong, and try not to kill each other."

"Whatever," the two said in unison.

**Ak'shara **stood on a hill overlooking the Ooman settlement. Rain was falling from the sky; the constant sound of it hitting his mask filled his head. Because of the sky water he could not go near the Ooman settlement, so he decided it would be best to simply stay away for now.

But right now, he and his brother were not out here to watch the Oomans, they were here for the serpents. Inside his mask, he had switched his vision to search for the serpents, it had revealed more than the location of the deadly enemy.

Just under the hill the stood on, was a catacomb of tunnels created by the serpents. A scan revealed that the catacombs reached down for at least a mile into the earth. From what he could tell, the serpents had decided to expand their hive even more, stretching it towards the Ooman settlement.

The serpents might have just been animals, but they were very smart animals. They knew they couldn't get close to the settlement with all of its powerful fortifications, and the hive was not yet large enough that they could take it with overwhelming numbers. So, the best tactic for when you couldn't go through was to go around. In this case, under.

They stood now, just above one of the entrances to the hive, a medium sized cave with an opening twice as tall as them.

"We should warn the Oomans," said Ta'veta, "they must have no knowledge of the serpents here, otherwise they surely would have taken action by now."

"Perhaps they simply lack the power to, the serpents are not a foe that can easily be dealt with," suggested L'hiem.

"Still, we should do something. What is your opinion Ak'shara?" asked Ta'veta, when he didn't respond Ta'veta tried again, "Ak'shara?"

"Hm? Oh, apologies, I was lost in my thoughts," he said,

"What were you thinking about?" asked L'hiem, suddenly curious.

"Nothing…"

"You were thinking of the female Ooman weren't you?" accused Ta'veta,

"No…I was thinking about the serpents and what would be the best approach to the situation," he lied.

As it turns out, he had been thinking about the female Ooman. He didn't know why, she just wandered into his thoughts. In his thoughts the two of them fought together against the serpents, which in truth was a silly thought. Maybe he should ask her for advice, as demeaning as the thought was to him; she had accomplished something he was still stuck on.

"Personally I agree with warning the Oomans, plus it will attract attention, perhaps draw the bad blood closer for us," he finally said,

"Yes, now on to more important matters. Ak'shara, are you becoming attracted to the female Ooman?" asked L'hiem,

"I-What! What on earth would make you think that!" he shouted,

"It is obvious is it not? You think about her, you watch her, you praise her, and you even gave her a gift."

"I give her praise because she deserves it! I gave her the spear because she is part of our plan! I never said I think about her! As for watching her, I…I-I am simply find her interesting," he summarized loudly,

"So you are attracted to her!"

"Were you not listening?"

"Of course I was, your excuses simply gave me more proof to my belief!"

"Leave me alone! Go bother Ta'veta of something," growled Ak'shara,

"Ak'shara, it's not a problem if you're attracted to her. We'd be happy if you became attracted to anything at all," assured Ta'veta. Ak'shara was his friend, he didn't want to see him tormented like this; he gave L'hiem a punch on the shoulder, hard.

"Ow…yeah, what Ta'veta said, I was just kidding around. If you do make her your mate, we won't object," said L'hiem,

"What are you? My elder? I don't remember asking your permission to do anything, I'm the leader here, and I'm not going to make the female Ooman my mate. Besides, I doubt she'd find me very attractive."

"Come now Ak'shara, you have many…wonderful features," assured Ta'veta,

"Like what?"

"Like…um…well…your eyes…uh, no…your tusks are-"

"I don't have tusks," reminded Ak'shara,

L'hiem had to stifle a laugh as Ta'veta realized his mistake and attempted to apologize to his leader.

"All I meant was…uh…"

"Yesssss?" prodded Ak'shara, Ta'veta swallowed down his fear.

"Uh…I wonder if this planet has any tasty cuisine?" he said, hoping to change the subject.

"…Nice," commented L'hiem, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Ta'veta prayed to every deity he knew of that Ak'shara would let him live to see another day. Ak'shara slowly got to his feet and dusted himself off.

"Come on Ak'shara, don't kill the big guy. His screams will alert all the serpents to our presence," said L'hiem, his voice only half serious.

Ak'shara seemed to consider his comrade's words for a moment, then tilted his head to look past them; a low growl broke from his throat.

"Too late," he muttered as he walked past them.

The two of them turned around to see a tide of serpents headed towards them. A never ending wave of claw, teeth, and tail, in the midst of them were two Praetorians, their large crested heads bobbing up and down as they stomped towards their target. They would make wonderful trophies, but the real prize walked between the two Praetorians.

Its long tube shaped head, giant blades instead of hands, and easily as large as a Queen, a Ravager; one of the most dangerous serpents ever created. It was a good amount taller than the two Praetorians at its side, the ground seemed to shake as it lumbered towards them.

The arrival of this highly advanced serpent was both good and bad, for it meant two things. Good, because it meant that one of them was taking home a wonderful trophy tonight; bad, because it meant the hive was much more advanced than the hunters had initially believed.

Ak'shara extended out his glaive, to his right Ta'veta unslung his hammer, to his left L'hiem let loose his razor whips.

"Just lose yourself in the moment and pretend they're Ta'veta," suggested L'hiem,

"I'm going to kill myself?" asked Ta'veta, "alright, I've always wanted to know what death feels like."

Ak'shara popped his neck, and smiled, he counted at least two dozen serpents, not including the three behemoths in the back. This was good; there would be plenty for all.

Together the three hunter's charged into the black tide. Ak'shara skewered the first serpent that came at him with the head of his glaive, the next he chopped in half with the back of his glaive. Another rushed him in an attempt to catch him off guard, his glaive lashed out and ripped through its chest. Another came behind him, only end up on the receiving end of the back blade. A serpent pounced at him through the air, its powerful back legs propelling it like a living missile.

Ak'shara's left hand shot out and caught the serpent by its neck in mid-flight, not wasting a second he slammed it into the ground then brought his foot down on its head, crushing it into a green pulp.

Adopting a more aggressive stance, he performed a sideways chop at an incoming serpent, effectively taking off its head. Sensing another behind him he whipped around, bringing his glaive around in a wide swing. The unfortunate serpent had its internal organ's spilled onto the ground in front of its very eyes.

Hearing another trying to flank him, he spun himself a full 360 degrees before sinking the back end of his glaive into the serpent's stomach.

Off to the side of his vision Ak'shara could see Ta'veta swinging his hammer with glee, he became like a one team demolition team. He brought his hammer down on a single serpent, its entire body seemed to simply disappear under the head of his hammer. A serpent pounced at him from the side only to smacked away by a single smack from his hammer, Ta'veta brought up his hammer and swung it as he turned, it's head connected with a very unlucky serpent, then continued to hit two more.

On the other side of the killing field, L'hiem lashed out with his twin razor whips. Anything that traveled into his range was instantly killed; anything that stayed out of it was shot. A single brave serpent attempted to charge him, such a foolish creature. His right whip lashed out and sliced it across the throat, it dropped to the ground, drowning in a pool of its own blood. A second followed in behind it, L'hiem executed an arm over arm maneuver, causing the two whips the slice off its head. A third tried to escape; he targeted it with his mask and burned a hole through its belly. Another wandered into his range, sadistic thoughts started to travel in his mind. He lashed out with his right whip, wrapping it around its foot. He gave it a yank and sliced it clean off, he lashed out with his left and wrapped it around its left hand, a single pull and its hand fell to the ground. Finally he put it out of its misery by slitting its throat; it fell to the ground; still gargling its own blood.

Suddenly he felt something strike him in the back; he felt pain lance through his side as he flew through the air and tumbled to the ground. He immediately jumped back up; he'd attract ted the attention of one of the Praetorian. It let loose an ear splitting screech that rattled the inside of his head, he let loose his own war cry; letting it know he was ready for it.

It made the first move by charging at him, full speed. He rolled out of the way of the incoming behemoth; then lashed out with two strikes from his whips, cutting it across its leg and thigh. It screamed in furry and swiped at him with one of its claws; he rolled under and struck it across its chest. Without warning it backhanded him; sending him flying through the air and onto the ground again. L'hiem looked up just in time to see the Praetorian's tail descending upon him, he rolled out of the way, letting the spike smash down on where he just was. The Praetorian lifted its tail and struck at him again and again, each time he barely managed to roll out of the way.

He soon found himself on his back, the tail just a few inches to the side of his head. He lashed out with his whip again, slicing the Praetorian across its face. It reared back its head in pain, just enough time for L'hiem to pounce back to his feet.

"My turn," he growled,

Lashing out with both whips, he wrapped them around both of the Praetorian's hands. Its exoskeleton was thick and not as easily cut as its lesser brethren, even still, the sharp blades sawed their way through its skin.

L'hiem pulled with all his might, trying to bring the serpent down. It returned the effort, pulling back furiously against his might. L'hiem felt his feet skidding forward, he was quickly losing ground. This wasn't a battle he could afford to lose, he powered up his burner and fired off a quick shot. The bolt had little juice and as such did little damage, but it served its purpose. The attack knocked the beast off guard long enough for him to yank it to the ground.

With his prey now lying on the ground, he burst into action. He charged it ready to deliver the final blow, but the beast recovered quicker then he believed it could. It lashed out with one of its claws, missing him by only a few centimeters, then tried to push itself up. L'hiem moved quickly, he lashed out with both whips, wrapping them tightly around its thin neck.

L'hiem pulled hard, his whip's razor sharp edges slowly sawing their way through its skin; its own efforts to push itself up only made the blades dig deeper.

With a final heave, L'hiem severed the entire head from the Praetorian's neck, letting loose a wonderful spray of its acidic blood onto the ground.

On the other side of the battlefield, Ta'veta was battling with the other Praetorian.

"Come on bitch!" he roared,

It charged him at full speed, he responded by doing the same.

(Not exactly like L'hiem is he?)

His large hammer dragged across the ground as he charged the giant serpent, most would consider such an act suicide, but he was not like most hunters. He was a juggernaut of destruction.

With a single move of his massive shoulders, he brought the hammer across his chest and smashed it against the Praetorian's face. So powerful was the attack that it actually knocked the giant off balance and sent it sprawling across the ground.

Ta'veta let out a powerful roar.

"Is that all you've got?" he taunted, suddenly its tail lashed out and struck him on the side. He stumbled back, pain coursed through him.

'Pauk! I forgot Ak'shara's lesson! Never let you guard down!' he screamed in his head.

By now the Praetorian had recovered from his attack and was well on its way towards him. Ta'veta jumped back to his feet and charged head first. The Praetorian lashed out with its right claw, Ta'veta batted away the attack with a quick swing, then spun himself and used the momentum to smash the hammer into the Praetorian's leg. The limb broke under the powerful attack, snapping with a sickening sound. Ta'veta reveled in it.

The leg gave way and the Praetorian slumped to the ground.

Not stopping for a moment, he spun back around and used his hammer to give the beast a powerful uppercut to the chin, then brought the hammer down and smacked the beast's head right back to the ground.

But he didn't want it to end this way, he was having too much fun. Besides, he didn't want to damage his trophy. Slinging his hammer onto his back, he charged toward the beast full speed and grabbed it by the back of the head. Wrapping one arm around its neck and placing the other on the farthest side of its head.

Then, he began to twist. His muscles bulged, his mind focused on the task at hand. The Praetorian screamed in protest, but to him it was like encouragement. With a mighty roar he provided a final jerk, tearing the entire neck and head from its shoulders.

Dropping the head to the ground, he raised his arms and let out another roar, he had won!

(But oh wait, what about the ravager?)

Ak'shara now stood over his latest kill, his glaive firmly lodged in the ground through the serpent. He chuckled as its fingers fidgeted with the small remainder of its life.

Suddenly, he heard loud footsteps behind him, they seemed far, then closer and closer. He turned around to come face to face with the Ravager, its razor sharp teeth only inches from his face.

Some might have stayed there frozen with fear, others might have run, but he smiled.

The Ravager let out a low hiss, as if challenging him to a fight.

Bringing up his right hand, he placed it between their two faces and extended his wrist blades.

(Imagine that scene for a moment…epic!)

This would be a battle fought, blade to blade.

The Ravager roared and swung at him with its right hand, Ak'shara ducked as the giant blades passed right over his head. Quicker than he expected it swung its left hand shortly after, he rolled out of the way of the deadly blades and towards the his opponent. Extending his left wrist blade he sprinted between its legs and extended out his arms, slashing his blades across the creature's legs.

His attack had drawn blood but it did little in the way of actual harm, in fact it seemed to make it angry. It whipped around and swung its blades at him; he ducked and pounced at the Ravager. He soared through the air and smashed into the Ravager, lodging his blades into its chest. Drawing back his right arm he viciously began smashing his blades repeatedly into its flesh in an uppercut like motion.

The Ravager screeched in pain as the hunter slashed away at him, it swiped at him and knocked him off its chest. It began furiously swiping at him, the hunter barely had time to think as he was too busy dodging the monster's attacks. So busy was he that he didn't notice as its tail suddenly shot out and swipe him off his feet, knocking him onto his back.

The monster wasted no time in wrapping its tail around him like a snake and heaving him up into the air. It brought itself face to face with him, slimy jaw only centimeters away. Its mouth opened, revealing its inner jaws, big mistake.

Its inner jaws shot out from its mouth but Ak'shara was far too experienced to die from something like this. His hand was like lightning as he grabbed the Ravager's inner jaw just before it bit through his skull, the Ravager screamed, with a roll of his shoulders, he yanked the inner jaw right out of its mouth.

The giant serpent screeched in pain, acid blood pouring out through its teeth. Ak'shara swiped at its face, his blades going clean through the flesh.

In all the pain it flung him to the ground, releasing him from its grasp.

"Time to die," he growled gleefully,

He fired a quick shot from his burner at the Ravager's knee, despite being a full power shot it served to do little except crack the Ravager's thick exoskeleton. But for Ak'shara, it was enough.

With a sudden burst of speed, he charged the beast. As soon as he came within range, he pounced through the air and lashed out with his foot, his momentum added to the kick and smashed through its armor.

The Ravager fell to its knees, Ak'shara saw his chance. Bringing back his left arm he swung and slashed across its throat, then followed up by bringing back his right arm and sinking his blades up its jaw and into the beast's brain. Remarkably the beast somehow lived and let out a screech, the swiped at him with its powerful blades. He jumped back just in time, letting the blades just barely skim across his skin. He shrugged off the scratch, he had ended up back next to his glaive; he quickly ripped out from the ground and charged back into the fray.

The Ravager still on its knees, swiped at him again, he rolled under the clumsy attack and ran up next to its thin neck. Wielding his glaive like a axe, he placed both of his hands at the back of the shaft and brought it above his head. Then brought its razor sharp head down on the thin neck, its edge cleanly cut through the thick exoskeleton.

With a thump, the head came clean off.

Ak'shara roared in victory, reveling in the kill. He quickly scooped up the Ravager's large head, careful not to drip any of its acidic blood on himself.

"I needed that," he said to himself, to the right he saw his companions also carrying trophies.

"carry my trophy back to the ship," he instructed Ta'veta, handing him the Ravager's head.

"Why can't you do it? Are you going somewhere?" asked Ta'veta curiously

"Yes," he responded, then turned away; sheathing his glaive as he went.

"Are you going to see your future mate?" called L'hiem,

Ak'shara whipped around, for a moment the two hunters feared he might attack them. He wouldn't kill them, but he could still attack them.

Instead he simply said, "leave me alone."

Then turned away and walked towards the Ooman settlement.

Okay, so how was that Chapter? I hope it was good, cause it's what you get until I get back from China. I don't know if you realized this, but up until now, the Preds have not fought the aliens in the story. Hopefully I did alright with the fight scene, it's a lot harder to do this kind of fight, then human fight.

I would like to give a great big thanks to **southernvampirepirate **she/he, (sorry I don't know) has been a wonderful support. I'm glad that I have at least one incredibly devoted supporter who deems my story fit to review each chapter. Thanks a bunch.

Well, you won't hear from me for a while. Hopefully by the time I come back some one will have contributed their ideas, cause nothing has come in so far.

Until next time.

(Walks off stage)

DB: "Hey, Ak'shara, Anna, what are you guys doing?"

Anna: "Oh you know, prepping for the next scene"

Ak'shara: "Yeah, we've gotta practice"

DB: "Anna, Ak'shara, why are you guys taking off your shirts?... WAIT! STOP! THAT SCENE ISN'T UNTIL LATER! PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON! NO! STO- oh I give up."

Anna: "See you guys lat- Oh MY GOD! YES!"

DB: "At least do that QUIETLY! Yeesh, some people. Might have to make this story M later."


	10. Chapter 10

Hey guys, I'm exhausted from my long flight from China. I never really liked traveling to be honest. But I'm glad to be back, there's no place like home! That sounded weird I know, but on to other business. I have received a question from a reader (who has chosen to remain anonymous) not about my story but about me! Can you believe it! Someone wants to know about me! (Sniff)

Alright so the question was: What girls in gaming do you find hot?

That is a question with an incredibly long answer. I'm an active gamer and I get around to a lot of games so this might take a bit.

From Mortal Kombat: I like Jade because she just seems very…I don't know, unique. I also like Sareena, not just because she wears skimpy clothing, all the girls do that, I just enjoy her story and the fact that she's hot. I think Mileena may be my favorite though. I know what your all thinking; Dreamerboy84, you know what she looks like under the mask right? Yes I know! But quite frankly I don't care, I kind of like her face. I know that sounds weird by I am in fact a very weird person. I actually even considered writing a fanfic starring her and an OC. The first chapter of it is sitting in my documents somewhere; I haven't had a lot of motive to work on it so far.

From Dragon age Origins: I like Morrigan because she's very unique, a bit of a dark woman. She's also pretty (drools).

From DOA: I only like Christie, I don't need to explain why, just look at the woman.

From Final Fantasy: Tifa…I'm not sure why actually, I just like her, very strong willed girl. I also like Lightning, not just because she's hot, but because she is realistically proportioned. Of all the hot girls of gaming, how many are realistically proportioned? She proves women don't need to have a huge chest to be attractive, I'm sure there are other out there but Lightning is the one that comes to my mind.

Well there you have it anonymous reader, hopefully the rest of my readers don't hate me for this. If anyone else has questions for me, about me or the story, feels free to ask.

(This was thoroughly embarrassing to write)

_Chapter 10_

_How'd you get in here?_

"C-come on! W-when's the food gonna be done?" whined Trip as she furiously banged her hands on the dining room's wooden table.

"Almost done," replied Bear from within the kitchen,

"T-that's what you said two hours ago!" accused Trip in her whiny voice, suddenly a shot pain struck her head.

"OW!" she screamed and turned around to see Anna holding a metal fork just above Trip's head.

"Trip, it's only been five minutes," corrected Anna as she set the table,

"B-but I'm soooooo hungry!" she whined. That earned her another bop on the head from Anna, which unfortunately, only made her whine more.

"For the love of Mary! Just knock her out Anna!" pleaded Mick as he entered the dining room,

"I'm afraid even that wouldn't shut her up," she sighed.

"No, but this might." Anna turned to see Bear walking in, still wearing his flower patterned apron, carrying four plates of sizzling steak.

"YAY! F-food!" squealed Trip in glee as Bear gave her a plate of the mouthwatering meat.

"Yang, come down stairs, it's time for dinner!" shouted Anna, she felt a small tap on her shoulder and turned to see YinYang already seated at the table. "Oh, my fault,"

YinYang nodded in acceptance of the apology then poured himself a glass of beer. The team quickly began devouring the food like ravenous animals, stopping only to breathe or drink.

When the meal was over, the team sat contently around the table with full stomachs. Anna picked at her teeth with a metal tooth pick, while Mick continued to gulp down bottles of beer.

"I have to say Bear, if there comes a day you can't be a mercenary anymore, you could always be a gourmet chef," said Mick,

"I doubt that will happen soon," laughed Bear,

"No I'm serious, think about it. A place where you can get your vehicles repaired or get your bellies filled. It's a perfect idea; we'd bring in mounds of cash!"

"Greed is one of the seven deadly sins," commented YinYang,

"Ah, what do you know Yang," scoffed Mick as he took another swig of beer. "All you ever do is keep your mouth shut, how about doing that now?"

"!"

Everyone at the table turned to see trip groaning in her chair and holding her stomach.

"I-I think I ate something rotten," mumbled Trip,

"Haha! It's not something you ate girl! Your eyes are just bigger than your stomach!" mocked Mick

Trip used what little power she had to scrunch her eyebrows together, then used her fingers to measure the size of her eye and compared it to her stomach.

"Oh for the love of god, it's just an expression you foolish girl!" shouted Mick,

"W-well how am I'm supposed to know? I-I'm not old like you!"

"I'M NOT OLD!" Shouted Mick, wagging his finger at her like it was a whip. Trip simply responded by sticking out her lounge.

"All right break it up you two, we already have enough people dying each day without you two trying to kill each other," said Anna,

"Whatever," muttered Mick,

"Trip put your dishes away and get ready for bed," ordered Anna, rubbing her temples to get rid of the building headache.

"Awww! B-but I'm not tired!" complained the teen as she tried to stifle a yawn,

"Uh huh, then why are you yawning?"

"I-I'm not!" she defended,

"Yes you are,"

"N-no I'm not!"

"Trip, just do as I say,"

"D-do I have to?"

"Yes."

"O-okay," resigned Trip, most likely knowing if she didn't, she'd get another bop to the head. The teenager put away her plate then skipped up the steps. A few minutes later the sound of the shower came from the top floor.

"So tell me Anna, they say that you and the crew have taken down Boss Conner, am I right?" asked Mick as he took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Yeah that's right," said Anna, taking another sip of her beer. "Took down his entire gang, all that are left are him and a few stragglers."

"He's alive!"

"Yeah, but after Samael the guy was too scared to even lift his own hands to his face," chuckled Bear,

"Who's Samael?" asked Mick,

Immediately Anna knew they had just put themselves in a tight spot. They either had to tell Mick the truth, which he would most likely not believe or come up with a lie real fast.

"He's…uh…a-"

"Another mercenary," said YinYang cutting her off.

'I owe you for that Yang,' she thought to herself.

"But, what was he doing there?" asked Mick, suddenly very interested.

"Well…we didn't exactly escape on our own," admitted Anna,

"You mean the ferocious trio actually needed help for once?" asked Mick with a tinge of sarcasm.

"It was mostly Trips fault," explained Anna,

"W-was not!" shouted Trip from upstairs.

"Anyway it was Trips fault, she had seen something shiny on the ground and got taken hostage," recounted Anna,

"Again?"

"Again," the three said together,

"We didn't have a choice but to surrender," continued Anna, "he took us into his little cavern hideout, he wanted us to open the Stryker but we wouldn't."

"He was about to let his men have his way with Trip-"

"That bastard! The girl may be stupid but she doesn't deserve that!" interrupted Mick, "sorry, please continue."

"Well, Samael and his two friends showed up just in time to save us. He and his men were quite the savage killers, by the time they were done, Conner's men were in so many pieces there wasn't a number high enough to count them," said Anna with a small smile.

"What did he want with Conner?"

Bear answered this time. "We're not sure; they simply took something from him and left. Didn't even bother to kill him. After that they let us go and helped us escape."

"What did they look like?"

"Don't know, they wore masks over their faces. Didn't talk much either," said Bear.

"I did manage to get myself shot though. Amazingly enough Samael patched me up," added Anna, "probably saved my life."

"This Samael person sounds like a nice guy,"

"Yeah, I guess," said Anna, staring blankly at her beer bottle.

"My, do I hear some affection in your voice there," teased Mick. Anna immediately blushed and began playing with her hair, an old habit she had developed when she became embarrassed.

"I…uh…don't know what you're talking about," she stuttered, she gulped down the last of her beer and stood up from her chair. "I'm gonna turn in, it's been a long day."

"Good night," said Bear,

"Good Night lover girl," mocked Mick.

YinYang simply waved.

'Ugh, why did I say that,' thought Anna as she headed up the stairs.

By now Trip had finished with her shower and was walking out of the bathroom in her blue nightgown, her hair tied up in a ponytail.

"Did you brush your teeth?" asked Anna,

Trip opened her mouth, most likely to lie, but Anna gave her the "motherly look".

"No," she admitted and walked back in to brush.

After finally hearing the sound of brushing, Anna walked to her room, which was just down the hall from the bathroom. Her room could be considered fairly luxurious in the days standards. It had a bed with a mattress, pillow, and blanket. The walls had originally had a red and blue flower pattern to them but had eventually faded away. Her room also contained a window that gave her a view of the back of their house. Across the room from her bed was a work bench where she fixed and maintained her guns.

In fact sitting on it right now was her personal AK-120 assault rifle. She had had since her years in the Spetsnaz and had kept it by her side for the duration of her time as a mercenary. Recently she had accidently damaged the bolt while trying to maintain it. Which, in her opinion, was incredibly ironic.

The gun used the same system as the Spetsnaz pervious rifle, the AN-94. She had outfitted it with a red dot sight for when she had to perform more accurate shots. In addition she had pairs of magazines she had super glued together as makeshift double magazine. She had also managed to find a flashlight attachment, giving her an advantage during night time.

"Hello old friend," she said as she took it off the rack.

Working quickly, Anna took the rifle apart, carefully cleaning each part as she went. Then reassembled it with the missing part she'd managed to find on one of the weapons they'd stolen from Boss Conner. Satisfied with its condition she replaced on its rack until she would use it again.

By now Trip had brushed her teeth, and it was her turn for a shower.

**Ak'shara **found himself very disturbed when he arrived at the Ooman's dwelling. Lying just in front of him on the Ooman's roof lie the body of a serpent that had managed to bypass the Ooman's defenses. He'd quietly snapped its neck in order to not draw attention to himself.

He had been rather proud of the kill so he cut of the creatures head and strapped it to his back.

From under him he heard a small noise coming through the window, it sounded like someone humming a tune. Most likely the younger female. That was good, of all the Oomans she seemed the most comfortable in his presence.

He hung himself from the top and swung into the girl's room. He landed a thud, startling the small one. She seemed very nervous at first, then he uncloaked and she immediately brightened up.

"H-hey there," she said cheerily, immediately rushing over and giving him one of those strange Ooman displays of affection. She did not seem to want to let, so Ak'shara tapped her on the shoulder and she released him.

"I-It's so great to see one of my newest and best friends, I was wondering when I'd see you and here you are. Yay! Is Titan or Dex with you? Huh? Oooh, d-do you have a present for me? H-huh? D-do ya?

Ak'shara paused for a moment, trying to decipher what the small one was talking about, then reached in to a small pouch on his belt and handed her a unique knife. It had a jagged edge and was outlined with a golden color, he'd taken it in a fight from Yautja male who'd challenged his honor. He didn't really need it as it never really did anything for him.

"Oooh! S-shiny! I bet it's really sharp. N-now when someone attacks me I can stab the to death! Stab stab stab kill kill!

"Arna?" he asked, snapping her out of her disturbing imagination.

"Oh! Y-you wanna see Anna?"

Ak'shara nodded.

"S-she's just finished her shower so she must be in her room, let me show you," offered Trip,

Trip led the giant alien out of her room and towards Anna's, she playfully led him by hand until they reached Anna's room.

Trip, without knocking, opened the door to Anna's room. There was a loud popping sound as a 6 inch blade flew over Trip's head. Ak'shara, with his quick reflexes, managed to catch the blade before it struck him fatally in the heart.

"Damn it Trip! I told you to knock before entering! I was practicing my knife throwinnnnggggggggg what is he doing here?"

"Y-you remember Sammy right?" smiled Trip as if the whole knife incident had never happened, "h-he said he wanted to see you! I-Isn't that sweet?"

"S-see me?" stuttered Anna,

"Yup!"

Through his mask's thermal vision, Ak'shara could see the Arna's face growing hotter, perhaps she was sick.

"Uh, I can't right now. Goodbye," said Anna before closing the door.

"A-Anna? I-its impolite to not talk to a guest!" hollered Trip before knocking on the door,

"Tell him to go away," commanded Anna through the door,

"J-just let him in! D-don't make me get him to knock down the door! Y-you know I'll do it!" threatened Trip,

"Ugh, fine!" surrendered Anna, opening the door for the tall alien. "So what do you want?"

Ak'shara walked into her room, noticing at least several knives stuck to a target attached to her wall. He noted, that nearly all of them had hit dead center.

"Well I'll leave you two alone to do your adult things?" giggled Trip before making a heart with her hands and showing it to Anna,

"What is that supposed to mean? Trip?" but before Anna could ask again, the young girl was already gone.

Ak'shara had no idea what had happened between the Oomans, but he gathered that the two females had some sort of argument about him. The younger one had apparently won and now he was allowed access to Arna's living quarters.

Wasting no time he pulled the serpent's head off his back. He held it out in front of him then pointed up, towards the roof.

"What?" asked Anna,

The large alien repeated the gesture.

"You found a bug on our roof? Is that what your trying to say?"

The alien nodded.

"That can't be right, this town is practically a fortress. No bug could have gotten in, much less managed to make it through to our house."

Ak'shara knew that he most likely wouldn't be believed, but he still had more proof. Holding up his wrist computer, he typed in a few commands. A red hologram of the city sprang up from the computer, the hologram showed the tunnels that the serpents had created under the city.

"They're tunneling under," realized Anna as she studied the diagram." This will defiantly have to be fixed. I'll talk to the Crusaders, see if they can help out. Most of them are bored anyway so they'll probably help."

Ak'shara nodded in satisfaction, understanding that his job was finished.

"Oh my god your wounded," said Anna,

Ak'shara looked down and realized that he had indeed been wounded without even noticing. Three slashes had found themselves above his right ribs, letting out a trickle of his golden blood.

"Here let me help you with that" offered Anna moving to inspect the wound, Ak'shara quickly shrank away. "Oh come one, don't be a baby let me help you. It's the least I can do after you helped me."

Ak'shara shook his head, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a vaguely cross shaped object. He slammed it point first into his wound; Anna watched as the wound suddenly closed itself. Three small distinctly golden lines could be seen on his body, but other than that the wound was all but gone.

"Wow, handy," muttered Anna.

Ak'shara nodded, then remembered the Ooman's own wounds. He had only patched them up yesterday and he needed to make sure he had done a good job. As a medically trained Yautja, or whatever he was, he always checked his patients after he had treated them. The female Ooman was no exception.

He moved towards the small female and reached out with his talons to inspect her wounds. She immediately shrank away from him, he tried again but she did not cooperate.

"Ned ta cheek vound," he said to her, (need to check wound)

"**Ned ta cheek vound,"** said Samael,

Anna was reluctant but she understood the purpose of the alien's sudden attempts to reach out and touch her. She nodded, she'd let him do his work, he was a doctor after all so it shouldn't be too embarrassing for her.

The tall alien reached out again, this time managing to get a hold of her. He grabbed her shirt and fumbled with the material a bit before lifting it up to reveal her bandaged stomach.

Anna was silently proud of her flat stomach, most woman even now a days would kill to have her kind of body. Having a large male alien, stare at her stomach was all most too much to bear. But she managed.

Eventually Samael started lifting her shirt even further up, she resisted at first but the alien was adamant in his decision.

'I might as well take my shirt off,' she thought, 'its not like he hasn't already seen most of me'

Her face blushed a deep red as she took her entire shirt off, leaving her only a bra to cover her chest. She reflexively wrapped her arms around her womanly parts in a rather vain attempt for decency.

She shivered as she felt Samael's claws trailing over her skin through the bandages, he peeled a few of the wrappings back to check the wounds more thoroughly ,then replaced them with fresh bandages out of his pack. The alien looked up from his inspection and pointed to her legs, signaling that he had to inspect there too.

Anna sighed, 'this is getting out of hand' she thought as she reluctantly removed her pants.

Anna blushed uncomfortably as Samael's talons traced down her legs.

(I know what you are all thinking, damn perverts. Ah who am I kidding, I'm the one writing this, I'm so bad! Mwahahahahaha!)

Needless to say she was glad when it was finally over. Her relief was short lived when Samael pulled out one of the star like injectors he had used on himself.

"Dis will hurt," he said. He gently took a hold of her hand, Anna was confused as to the purpose of this, it made her feel incredibly awkward. She understood as soon as he pushed the injector into her skin, she felt like her veins were suddenly filled with oil and set on fire. She let out a small yelp and squeezed the alien's hand with all her might in order to stamp out the pain. She clenched her teeth and shut her eye tight.

Then it was over.

"Damn that hurt!" she growled, suddenly grateful that Samael had given her his hand to hold.

"It vil herl son," said Samael,(it will heal soon)

"Thanks…I think," said Anna as the giant alien walked towards the window and opened,

"er elcome,"

With that he jumped out and left her in the room alone.

**That chapter might not have been the best I've ever written but cut me some slack, I just got back from China. Anyway, remember to review and tell your friends! I'm gonna go stare at a picture of Mileena…he he he.**


	11. Chapter 11

Okay…new chapter.

A question has come up recently from another anonymous reader, it reads: Dreamerboy, I noticed that on your profile you mention that you have been called emo yet you are not, why?

Well that's a good question; I shall now tell you my life story in the most entertaining way possible. You see, I wear a lot of black. Most days my entire wardrobe consists of black; black shirt, black coat, black pants, ya know. That was the first step. The next is that at school I'm a rather quite person, while my class mates talk about some cute girl the saw or how to properly sing the SpongeBob theme song, I'm sitting at my desk, doing my work. When people don't do their work, or don't listen to the frigging teacher, I tend to get annoyed. That leads to me insulting people and doing death threats. That was the next step. The third was that I'm sometimes seem hitting my own head or putting a mock gun to it, that doesn't mean I'm suicidal. I sometimes think about my past and found that I wish I hadn't done certain things or done other things differently. I take my mistakes a lot harder than most would, so whenever I think about my mistakes I do one of my suicide poses. But seriously, I'm not suicidal. I'm just more serious than most people that know me. I think my glasses have something to do with it to.

Anyway, now you know a little more about me, I know that you're probably banging on your keyboard shouting: "WHAT IS THIS SH*T, WHERE'S THE A** KICKING? THE DECAPITATION?"  
Well, be patient, it's coming. Anyway, enjoy a small vignette that helped me stall for some thinking time.

**A typical day at the studio**

Alarm clock goes off; DB smashes his clock and sits up in bed. His hair is messy, his shirt is inside out, and there's a sock stuck to his face. (ewww) He yawns and stiffly gets out of bed. After doing the three S's, he dresses in all black attire and walks into the studio.

To his left, some old guy is adjusting the lighting for scene 3, to his right is some fat guy holding up a microphone for an actor.

DB walks through, obviously tired, dark lines under his eyes and sagging shoulders.

Worker: "Hey boss! How ya doing? I wanted to ask you, can I have a raise?"

DB: "No," then walks off.

Worker: "Aww come on boss! Please?"

DB: Pulls out a gun and points it at worker.

Worker: "Uh, ya know what? I think my salary is fine in fact I think you should lower it a bit, you pay me too much"

DB: "Whatever" and walks off.

DB walks into the staff lounge, to his right L'hiem, Ta'veta, and Trip stuff themselves with doughnuts and milk. (Always drink milk) To his left YinYang and Bear are playing chess and Anna is reading her script.

L'hiem: "Hey DB, how's it going?" his mouth full of doughnuts.

Ta'veta: "MUST EAT MORE SUGARY DOUGHNUTS! DOUGNUTS! DOUGHTNUTS! DOUGHNUTS!

DB: "Is he okay?"

L'hiem: "Oh yeah, he's just on a sugar rush right now, he'll calm down pretty soon."

Trip: "I-I think we should get some cake here too!"

DB: "We're not recording yet, stop talking like that."

Trip: "W-what are you talking about? T-this is how I talk!"

DB: "…Oh…right, sorry."

Bear: "Could you keep it down? I'm trying to beat YinYang!"

Anna: "You've played 100 games since you've started and you still haven't won?"

Bear: "He's very good!" strokes his chin thoughtfully.

YinYang: "Please make your move."

Bear: "Okay, um, how about-. No, how about-. Nah, I think I'll-. No."

DB: Large sigh.

Anna: "Hey DB, I'd like to talk to you about the script."

DB: "What now?" groaning while pouring himself a glass of milk, then starts drinking.

Anna: "In scene 36, it says I fight the bugs in a one piece bikini."

DB: Spits out milk, "WHAT! Let me see that!" grabs script. Sure enough; one piece bikini. "Okay, who changed the script, I swear when I get my hands on them I'll-. AK'SHARA!" Then storms off.

L'hiem: Ak'shara changed the script again didn't he?

Anna: "Yup"

L'hiem: "He's really obsessed with you, how do you stand it?"

Anna: "I don't know, I think it's kind of cute. It's not like he hasn't already seen me naked."

Ta'veta: "MORE DOUGHNUTS!"

With DB

DB: "Where's Ak'shara?" grabbing staff worker.

Worker: "He's still sleeping sir!"

DB: "ARRRGH!" storms off to Ak'shara's room. His room is fancy by the way. In Ak'shara's room, DB sees Ak'shara in bed.

DB: "Ak'shara! Get your butt out of bed now!"

Ak'shara: "Zzzzzz..."

DB: Picks up megaphone "AK'SHARA! GET YOUR SCALEY BUTT OUT OF BED NOW!"

Ak'shara: "Zzzzzz…"

DB: Picks up bat and swings it at Ak'shara. WHACK! Nothing, the bat is now dented and Ak'shara is still asleep. But DB has a plan, an intricate and elaborate plan that only the most sophisticated genius could think of. *Cough*

DB: "Ak'shara, Anna is naked and right outside your room."

Ak'shara: "SHE IS? LET ME SEE!" of course, all he sees is his very angry and pissed of boss.

DB: "Did you change the script so that Anna would fight bugs in a one piece bikini?"

Ak'shara: "Um…yeah. Why not?"

DB: "Because she's in a desert like environment, because she's not a whore, and because we are trying to create a positive image of woman in our work!

Ak'shara: "Oh come on, what's not positive about this?" Holds up a picture of Anna in a bikini.

DB: "Will you just get your butt out of bed and get ready? We're starting in an hour!"

Ak'shara: "Alright, fine. Yeesh, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today." Then walks off.

DB: Rubs his forehead, "I hate my job." Then walks back to lounge only to see Ta'veta pass out. "Great! Now what happened?"

L'hiem: "I think Ta'veta had a sugar crash."

DB: "Ugh, someone throw a bucket of water on him, and where's Anna?"

Trip: "I-I saw her walk off with Ak'shara."

DB: "Oh boy" , walks to closet and peeks through door. Sees Ak'shara and Anna making out.

"Why me?"

**Tell me if it mad you laugh, or you hated it. Whatever. Also I'm considering writing a MK fanfic containing a romance between Mileena (because she's awesome) and an OC. In fact, I have an OC for just about everything.**

Chapter 11

It Smells Like Crap Down Here

Anna marched casually down the street, her hips swaying from side to side as the dust swept through the air. After her rather, embarrassing encounter with Samael, she now knew that her own home was in danger.

Needless to say, no one really likes learning that a hive full of bugs is directly under your feet. She had remembered what it was like in a hive, many of her missions had led her down those bug infested hell holes. Not many survived those missions.

The best solution to this problem was of course to go down the hive and kill the queen, then blow the whole thing up. But while her team was rather impressive, even they couldn't take on a hive by themselves. A small one maybe but from what she had seen this was fairly old and was most likely filled with hundreds of the things.

Plus, the only reason Samael and his buddies must have told her about it, is because they couldn't do it themselves either, which to her was very concerning. She'd seen the alien rip men in half with his bare hands, yet here he was asking for help. Though she couldn't blame him, the bugs were vicious animals.

Usually it took a whole platoon to just storm one hive, luckily, she knew just where to find a platoon.

Just up ahead, stood a five story building. Its red paint chipped away from exposure to harsh winds and sand. The building served as the Crusader command post for this town, just behind it was a fenced off area where the Crusader's trained their recruits. Standing at the front door were two Crusader soldiers, both wore dark brown dusters with a red cross painted onto their backs.

Anna recognized one of them immediately, a small smirk crossed her face.

"Hello Turk," she said, brushing a strand of hair from her face.

"That's Knight Turk to you civilian," he replied sternly,

"Really? How many civilians could kick your ass?" she asked the man,

The older man turned bright red though he tried not to give away his embarrassment. To his left stood a younger soldier. A scruffy haired young kid with a few pimples on his face, he looked absolutely horrified by Anna's actions.

"Whatever," muttered Knight Turk,

"who's the kid?" asked Anna, gesturing to the younger one.

"This is Squire Zed," said Turk,

"H-hello ma'am," said Zed, extending his hand. Anna took it, the young squire was practically shaking in his boots as he shook her hand.

"So Turk, did you tell him that most Squires die in their first engagement?"

The young squire's eyes went wide and looked to Turk as if asking for an answer.

"Anna, please don't scare my squire, he's got enough to worry as it is," growled Turk,

Anna held up her hands in mock surrender, she turned back to Zed to see that he was practically gawking at her. He'd obviously never seen a woman with an AK-120 strapped to her back, dressed in camo cargo pants, and a black coat and tank top.

The coat was mostly to protect her from the possible sand storms that randomly occurred.

"Well, I'm gonna go inside if that's alright with you boys," said,

"looking for more work?" asked Turk

"No, looking for help," she said before walking through the door, leaving the two Crusaders by themselves.

"Put your tongue back in your mouth squire," snapped Knight Turk,

Squire Zed immediately snapped his mouth close.

Inside Anna made her way to the top floor, along the way many Crusader's had to do a double take as they saw this well-armed woman strutting through their building. It gave her a small feeling of satisfaction that they knew who she was and how much better she was at killing then they were.

She soon came to the top floor, where she would find the man she was looking for. At a pair of double doors, another pair of Crusaders stood guard, though they could hardly be called exemplary as they were simply leaning against a wall.

Anna felt disgust build up inside of her, in the Spetsnaz if you were assigned to guard something or someone you were expected to be vigilante while doing it. If a Spetsnaz was found slack like these two they'd have been demoted and given a beating.

"I'm here to see Paladin Sever," she announced,

"Yes," said one of the guards, "he said to let you in if you arrived."

Anna nodded and pushed through the door. Inside sat Paladin Sever, behind his desk, filing through some papers.

"Anna, this is an unexpected surprise," he said, looking up from his work.

"I'm sure it is, since your soldiers never take the liberty to inform you when an important visitor walks into the building," she said snidely. The Paladin winced at the truthful statement of his men's current amount of discipline.

"Yes, we're working on that," he said calmly.

"I'm sure you are," she replied,

Sever was a middle aged man, most likely in his mid-forties. He had a balding head and rather pale skin, he was well built for a man of his age and at least 6ft to boot. Though Anna and he usually clashed, they had a mutual respect for each other. He always wore his armor and duster, the back of which proudly displayed a black cross, signifying his status as Paladin.

"Well, if you're here for work, we've got plenty," he said breaking the silence, "a caravan needs protecting, a strike team could use some back up to the north, and we've got reports of-"

"I didn't come here for a job," she interrupted,

"Oh? Is that so? Then what are you here for?" he asked, relaxing back into his chair.

"I need your help," she stated,

"Ha! What could we possibly help you with?" he said chuckling, "you're better equipped than my men, and your better trained."

"True, but even my team can't take on an entire hive by ourselves."

The Paladin grew silent, his mind chewing what Anna had just fed it.

"We're not mercs," he finally said, "we're not for hire, you're better off getting some help from the local gunslingers."

"What if I said this hive was directly under your feet?" she asked,

"Impossible," he said immediately, "my scouts have covered this area in a 30 mile radius, they've found no indication of any hive or even much Bug activity."

"Well have them check again, because just last night I found a bug on my roof!" she growled impatiently,

"Probably just a minor security breach," he scoffed,

"Minor! You and I both know that it just takes one bug to wipe out an entire city," she yelled,

"Look it's probably nothing," he said trying to calm her, "besides, say I were to believe that there were a hive nearby. How in god's name could one, if any, get into this compound? Do you even have any proof that the bug was on your roof?"

Anna sighed, he had her beat on that one. Ak'shara had most likely torn the bug to pieces and left nothing behind for her to use as evidence. Plus she had no proof of the tunnels the bugs had been digging, though it did nag her a bit that they dug holes under the place and no one had noticed some large gaping hole in the ground somewhere. She passively rubbed her middle finger and thumb together, a habit she'd picked up when she was thinking hard.

"Uh sir?" said a voice behind her, she turned to see a young crusader enter the room.

"What is it Knight?"

"There's been a murder sir," replied the knight,

"So? Murder happens every day, its war out there, people are supposed to die," yelled Sever,

"Yes sir, but this murder's a bit interesting. You'd better come see for yourself," stuttered the Knight.

**Ak'shara **stood on top of a large hill, a the view gave him a good look of the entire Ooman settlement as well as the surrounding area. He magnified his vision towards the hill that the serpent hive had taken residence in. Every now and then he would see a small flash of black, or a disturbance in the sand.

'Arna is a good warrior, but even she doesn't stand a chance against a full hive. I hope it wasn't a mistake telling her,' he thought to himself, a small burst of surprise crawled into his chest. When had he ever cared for Oomans? They were the cause of all his pain, they were nothing but good game. He shook his head to rid himself of such thoughts, then turned to L'hiem at his side.

"Any useful data from the flyer?" asked Ak'shara, L'hiem held up his hand to signal to give him a moment.

Ak'shara turned his eyes to the sky, catching the small dot that was the flyer. It was a useful Yautja invention, it gave the hunters an eye in the sky. The inventor had been inspired by seeing the great predators of the sky from the Ooman planet. Large birds that caught things many times their own size and flew them off to feed their young. The invention even looked slightly like the birds.

A few moments later, L'hiem tapped a few commands on his wrist computer. A second later and the flyer swooped down over their heads, circled back and landed itself on L'hiem's shoulder.

"Well?"

"From what I saw the hive is starting to become more active, most likely getting ready for an attack," summarized L'hiem,

"Anything else?"

"I found that only a few tunnels actually lead under the Ooman settlement, they must realize that digging to many might cause the settlement to cave in on itself."

"Hm, not as dumb as I thought," joked Ak'shara,

"Will we be joining the battle? Ta'veta is particularly excited at the thought of attacking a hive,"

"If necessary," explained Ak'shara, "we need to keep our presence to rumors, if word begins to spread of us, the Bad blood may flee before we can attack him. Rumors will draw him in."

"Hm, too bad, but what counts as necessary? Saving your mate?"

"Who?"

"Your mate,"

It took a moment for Ak'shara to understand who L'hiem had been referring to.

"SHE IS NOT MY MATE!"

"Of course," L'hiem said smugly,

"I hate you."

"**Well, there's your proof"** said Anna grimly as she stood over the carcass with Paladin Sever.

The murder had happened in the same street alley that she and YinYang had been attacked by that gang of thugs. The bodies were gone, but she didn't want to think of what might have happened to them.

The murder had been of a rather elderly man, maybe sixty or fifty. Typical homeless, dressed in rags, no shoes, and long unruly hair. According to the knights that had found him, he had a .32 caliber revolver for defense but it was still full loaded, meaning he had never even fired off a shot.

His clothes showed various claw marks across his chest, but the real winner was the large whole in his head. It was a clear marker that a bug had done the killing.

"Blast! I hate it when your right," growled Sever,

"Well I did try to warn you," she said crossing her arms.

"Alright fine, I believe you," he said holding up his hands, "but that still doesn't explain how the bugs got in here. We've got a 24 hour patrol on a 15 foot wall! How could one possibly get in?"

"Good god that sewer stinks!" complained a Crusader.

Ten minutes later

"It smells like crap down here," muttered Anna for the fourth time.

Anna had accompanied Paladin Sever along with at four other knights, plus Squire Zed, into the sewers where they suspected that the bugs were using as a way to get into the town.

Armed only with her assault rifle and her HK USP match pistol, was a little less fire power then she'd have preferred to have. Though compared to the knights she actually looked overcompensated.

Three of the knights carried around AR-15's, which, unfortunately, were only semi-automatic. The fourth carried an old shotgun. Knight Turk had equipped himself with the squad's only automatic weapon, an MP7. Squire Zed held an antique sawed off double barrel shotgun. Paladin Sever, who was not usually on the front lines due to his status, was armed only with a Colt Python revolver.

All of them were sloshing around in two feet of green water. One of the knights, a female, complained about getting her shoes wet, like that mattered when your life could be on the line.

The sewers were pitch black, had it not been for the shoulder lamp Anna carried, she would have been completely blind, two of the knights had also affixed flashlights to their guns.

"Dear lord! What is that smell! It's like something's been dead in here for the past two weeks!" complained a knight,

"That is entirely possible," said Anna loud enough for everyone to here. She noticed with cold pleasure that some of the knights shivered at her response. Just how she liked her voice, Ice cold.

The seven humans continued wandering through the dark tunnels, every thirty feet or so, one of them would attach a small blinking light to the wall of the sewer so that they could back track if needed.

About 30 minutes into their walk, they found their first sign of the bugs.

Anna lightly kicked the dead facehugger, its thin digits curled up into a bundle reminiscent of a fetal position, its corpse hard as a rock. Squire Zed looked at the small creature in horror.

"It was a mistake to bring the kid," whispered Anna to Knight Turk,

"Maybe, but he has to learn sooner or later," he whispered back,

"Or die," she added, Turk remained silent.

As they continued further down the hall, they soon found even more evidence of bug activity.

Anna grimaced at the sight of the badly mangled bodies. Each of them had been stuck to the wall by the bug's resin, a material so thick that they once had to use a blow torch to cut out a victim. Each body had obviously been impregnated, as each had their entire chest torn open. There were also various teeth marks and chunks of the bodies missing, once the host had served its purpose, it was used for food to feed the newborns and the soldiers.

There weren't many bodies, about twenty, which explained why no one had noticed the activity.

"Clever bastards," said Anna, "they didn't capture many, that way they didn't attract much attention. No one notices if a few people go missing."

"You mean they planned this? B-but there just animals, aren't they?" asked Zed, fear evident in his voice.

"Nay Squire," responded Paladin Sever, "these beasts are spawns of Satan himself, a final trial for the creatures of god."

Zed felt like throwing up.

As they progressed further and further into the tunnel, the walls slowly became more and more heavily coated with resin and more bodies began to appear.

"Dear God, how long have they been doing this?" asked a Knight,

Suddenly a quick patting sound whizzed past them, like the sound of bare feet on concrete.

"What was that?" asked a Knight, the humans were on edge now. Only Anna, Turk, and Sever managed to keep their cool, being veterans of many battles.

"Keep calm everyone," commanded the Paladin, "though we may walk through the valley of the shadows, we shall fear no evil. For we walk with God, and bring his wrath down upon the creatures of Satan's will."

The sound of sloshing water came down from the tunnel. The humans stopped in their tracks, weapons held at the ready. The light given from their lamps went only so far, beyond it was an impenetrable veil of darkness.

The signature hiss of a bug echoed through the tunnel. Then, slowly, a small dome broke through the darkness. Razor sharp, silvery teeth flashed in the light, thick drool dripped from its lips, it opened its mouth to let out another hiss.

"Just one," muttered a knight,

Suddenly, another popped out to its side, then another above it, then another, and another, and another.

"Just one huh?" said the knights companion turning angrily at him.

"Open fire!" commanded Paladin Sever,

In a single instant, all hell broke loose. The humans let loose a fury of lead, the bugs charged with lightning speed towards their prey.

Anna's finger itched to simply jam down on the trigger, but her training overcame instinct, instead she fired selective and controlled bursts, each time she fired, another bug hit the ground. To her right, Paladin Sever, carrying a weapon with only six shots, fired with pinpoint accuracy, the powerful slugs of his gun tore through the bug's exoskeleton.

Knight Turk fired in the same short controlled bursts as Anna, to his left Squire Zed fumbled with loading his gun. The young squire had immediately unloaded both shots the minute the first bug had rushed forward, most likely missing with both.

So intent was the knight's attention on the Squire that he failed to notice one of the dark bugs jump out from its ranks and leap at him. The knight saw too late collided with 200 pounds of pure killing power, the knight only managed to save himself by blocking the bug's teeth with his weapon.

The squire felt fear rise up in his chest, his friend and mentor was in danger. He needed to save him! He clumsily put the second shell into his gun. Remembering his training, with strength he didn't know he had he kicked the bug off of his mentor then unloaded both shells into the creature.

"Agh bloody…" cursed Turk as he dragged himself up, "Zed watch out!"

Zed turned just in time to see a drone lunge at him, when suddenly the dark horror was drowned in a wave of bullets.

"Watch your rookie Turk!" yelled Anna, Turk nodded back in thanks.

Soon, the noise of war quieted down, and it became quite once more.

Paladin Sever lowered his gun, its barrel smoking from constant discharge.

"Well Anna, I think you've made your point," he said as he loaded in his last remaining slugs.

"Really, because I thought I might have to drag the Queen down here before you finally believed me," she said sarcastically.

The Paladin allowed himself a small snort, then turned to his men.

"We're going back up, when we get there I want clean up teams to sweep these sewers and find the holes these demons have been using. Knight Turk I want you to tell the Lieutenant Knights to start organizing the troops. I want to be read by tomorrow."

"Yes sir!" they all said simultaneously

"Time to go on a bug hunt."

**So how was that chapter? Good? Sort of Good? Or bad? Well, you'll get another one in the next two weeks. I'm polishing my idea for the next chapter, trust me, it will be good.**

**As always, please review, they are what pushes me on. I apologize for not updating more constantly, school is murder on me, plus there are so many other ideas I wanna do. As an author it is seriously frustrating when you can't vent your ideas.**

**Anyway, that's all for now, and for the love of all that's good and pure someone give me a faction.**

**END**

**DB: Alright people that's a wrap. Nice done guys, well played. Same time tomorrow.**

**Zed: Do you think I did good, because I felt I didn't really have the fear on my face.**

**DB: You did fine Zed, now go home and do whatever you do.**

**Ta'veta: DOUGHNUTS!**

**DB: Someone shut him up.**

**Ak'shara: On it! (Brings up bat and smacks Ta'veta in the back of the head)**

**DB: Thank you**

**Worker: HEY! WHO WANTS TO PLAY STRIP POKER!**

**Everyone except DB: I DO!**

**DB: Hey! Wait! You can't play that-aaaaaaaaaaaaaand no one is listening to me. Whatever.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Do you know what kind of pisses me off? When people wright a really good story, but never finish it. But ya know, whatever. I know you guys didn't expect this update so soon but circumstances allowed it to happen. Yay for circumstance! There will very little Ak'shara in this chapter, but it is pretty action packed none the less. Anyway, I've got nothing witty or funny to write, so I'll just get on with the chapter. By the way, I like cargo pants, so convenient with all those pockets.**

Chapter 12

Bug hunt

Ak'shara sat in his quarters on the ship, surrounded and only kept company by his many trophies. He gently picked up one of his most memorable trophies, a serpent skull with an angry scar across its forehead.

The serpent had been an interesting one. When he had fought it, he could tell by its size and hide color that it had been an older and experienced specimen. Its exoskeleton had become slightly dull compared to the shiny black of younger serpents, and it was also slightly bigger. But what really had set it apart was the way it killed that really drew Ak'shara's attention. Instead of attacking its prey the moment it had the chance, it waited and observed. It found patterns in behavior, it recognized strengths and weaknesses, and when it found the best opportunity, it struck from the shadows. The prey would die without a sound; he remembered one particular human had had the serpents sharp tail shoved up its throat and out its mouth.

In a way, Ak'shara had respected the prey. The scar had come when Ak'shara had thrown his battle disk at it; the serpent had seen the deadly weapon coming towards it and moved at the last second. The blades had cut across its forehead, cutting deep enough to scratch the bone.

It had been a fun fight, all the way till he tore out its skull.

He replaced the skull back onto its place on the rack and opened up his wrist computer. He tapped a series of commands and let the holographic screen/mirror, pop up, again showing him the face he hated the most.

He sighed heavily and pressed another button.

"This is video log entry 51 of series 20. Location, Earth of the Oomans. The date is the 1514 revolution of the home planet and late into the 89th rotation." (Predator planet days are three times longer)

"Not much has happened as of late. My brothers and I have made it to an Ooman settlement and have kept our bait safe. We have chanced upon a hive very close to the settlement, a stroke of good luck. We plan on using it to spread the rumors of our Ooman bait and to bring the bad blood in. I can only pray that it works."

"From my observations the Arna, the female Ooman, has gathered together a large group of other Ooman warriors for this fight. She is indeed a formidable warrior, she commands much respect and most of the other warriors dare not even approach her. A good sign, she is indeed a good bait, she will be hard to kill and will most definitely draw in the bad blood's attention."

"I've also been observing the group of Oomans that Arna intends to bring along for the hive cleansing. I am worried, not for the Oomans safety of course but on how they will fair against the hive. Most of them are somewhat experienced, but they are ill equipped. In the worst case scenario, we may have to intervene. Best case scenario they will win, I hope for this to happen."

With a tap of a button he saved his video of self-reflection and closed his computer.

Ak'shara rubbed the bridge of his nose, it had been a long time since he had slept. He stayed awake throughout the Ooman planet's night time, so he hadn't slept at all in the past 24 hours, which was not long for him.

However, the stress of this mission was starting to get to him so he decided that now would be a good time to get some rest, considering that in a few hours he would most likely be in battle.

**Anna and her **team sat quietly in the back of their Stryker, each of them preparing for the task at hand.

In the last five hours, the Crusader army had dragged its but off a chair and into the dust of the wastes. Paladin Sever had sent advanced scouts to the coordinates that Anna had provided, they came back and confirmed the presence of the hive, and needless to say the Paladin was shocked to find it so close.

Orders had been given to the Knight Lieutenants to begin organizing the troops together and begin distributing gear.

Pretty soon almost every Crusader was packed into the vehicles that were available and transported to the outskirts of the hive. In a matter of a single hour, the Crusaders had effectively set up various tarps to shade the troops as the command figured out a battle plan.

It was quite a sight to behold so many white tarps blowing in the distance, almost looked like one of those farmers markets back before the Bug war. Crusader troops sat under them and talked to each other or checked their equipment. Most were quite nervous about attacking a hive, mostly the new ones, but Anna couldn't blame them. Even her fellow Spetsnaz during the war had been jittery before attacking hives and they were trained to have nerves stronger than steel.

Before tending to her own matters, Anna had taken a quick walk around the temporary camp. She was a little worried, most of the rifles that the Crusaders were armed with were semi-automatic civilian issued weapons, not very good for fighting bugs. Automatic weapons were in short supply and had been luckily given to those who knew how to use them but that still wouldn't help. The only advantage that the Crusader's did have was their "holy fire", which was in fact, flamethrowers. Bugs hated fire, but Crusaders loved it because it killed them without acid splatter and it could easily flush bugs out of any nook and cranny.

Currently Anna was taking care of her own equipment. For this battle she was glad to have her trusty rifle back, it always felt good to have a familiar weapon with you, as a side arm she had stuck with her H&K USP. Today she wore a white short sleeved t-shirt with a tan camping vest and a pair of grey cargo pants.

Bear sat next to her, carefully polishing his PKM, it was one of his favored weapons, though Anna knew the big man would have preferred a mini gun. He wore a thick faded green jacket over a dull grey shirt, and a pair of brown cargo pants.

Yin Yang sat on the Stryker floor, his eyes closed in deep meditation. He had reluctantly hung up his sniper rifle in exchange for his next favorite weapon, 9mm Uzi submachine gun with a collapsible stock for added accuracy. In addition he brought along a Remington 870 shotgun with a pistol grip instead of a regular butt stock. According to YinYang, he head killed exactly 83 men with the each of the guns, neither Bear nor Anna bothered to ask why he kept a record of such a thing. The man sat dressed in his favorite jacket over a white shirt and green cargo pants.

Trip sat in the passenger chair merrily humming a tune, it had been decided that she would in fact accompany them into the hive when the fighting started. This had actually not been decided by them, as all three of them had voted against it. It had been decided when Trip would not stop saying "please", and with her problem, it had been doubly annoying.

The three mercs had tried to prepare her as best as they could, she had indeed fought before but not on this kind of a level. She had complained the whole way through, about how they were overreacting or being meanies.

It was amazing how innocent she looked despite all of it; sitting there with her red baseball cap, playing with her hair. She like Anna had opted to wear a camping vest, plus a yellow tank top and a pair of blue khakis. For this battle they had given her a top condition MP5 and their best H&K 45, making her weapons the least likely to fail.

Even Mick had come out from their house for this one, though he would remain at the Stryker the entire time. He currently sat in the driver's seat, performing his before battle ritual of drinking an entire bottle of whisky.

"Excuse me," said a voice,

Anna looked to Stryker's lowered door to see Squire Zed standing at the opening. He carried with him a sack slung over his shoulder as well as a new pump action shotgun in his left hand.

"Hi Zed," greeted Anna.

"Hi, um…Paladin Sever wishes to speak with you, he wants your opinion on the battle plans," explained the young Squire.

"Alright, tell him I'll be there soon," said Anna as she got up to stretch.

"A-anna!" Trip suddenly shouted as she walked out from the front, "m-my pistol has a problem!"

She held up her pistol to reveal that its magazine wouldn't drop after pressing the eject button.

"God, what did you do this time?"

"W-what? N-nothing!" she said defensively,

"Um, I may be able to help," squeaked Zed,

"Huh? W-what did you say?" asked Trip, cupping her hand behind her ear.

"I might be able to help with that," he said louder as he pointed to the pistol. Anna raised her eyebrow skeptically but gestured for Trip to hand over the pistol.

The squire grabbed it and gave it a quick inspection, then immediately began to dismantle it with almost professional ease. After blowing into it and ocassionaly dusting it off, he reassembled it and tried ejecting the magazine, perfect.

"See sometimes dust gets in between the parts and causes it to act up" he explained, handing it back over to Trip. This time when Trip hit the eject button the magazine easily came out.

"Thanks Zeddy!" shouted an overjoyed Trip,

"N-no problem," he stuttered, his face brightly blushing.

"Ooh! W-wait here! I- I've got something that I can thank you with!" she said, rushing back into the Stryker. She came back a few moments later, carrying something shiny in her hand.

"H-here!" she said, holding out a lighter.

"L-look," she said, she opened it up and flicked on a flame, "its really cool, its shiny and it can make fire."

"T-thanks," said Zed, taking the lighter from her.

"I-It's my good luck charm! I'm pretty sure its because of that that I'm not dead," she continued,

"But, then I can take it from you if it means that much," Zed said immediately,

"N-nah, it's okay. I've got another one," she said, suddenly taking another one out of her pocket.

"T-that one is so you don't die and you can fix my gun again when it breaks," she explained sweetly.

"Um, well thanks" stuttered Zed, his face becoming even redder.

Anna felt a small smirk find its way onto her face, she turned to Bear and raised her eyebrows, he just shrugged and went back to polishing his gun.

"W-well, see you later Zeddy, m-maybe if you survive the hive, you can tell me how to fix guns. I-I'm good at fixing normal stuff, but I'm not good with guns."

"S-s-sure," he said, then quickly ran off.

Anna was laughing on the inside right now, she gave Mick a look. He just rolled his eyes and went back to drinking.

"Well, looks like you've got a new friend," commented Anna,

"I-I guess so, he seems like a nice person," said Trip

"Well, we better go see Paladin Sever before he sends out a search party for us," she commanded. Together the three mercenaries marched through the camp towards the command center.

The command center itself was pitifully simple. It was simply a pinned up tarp on four poles, with a simple metal fold up table under it. The Paladin and his four Lieutenant Knights surrounded the table, pointing at the map and exchanging ideas.

"Anna, nice of you to join us," said Paladin Sever, "I thought you'd like to be informed of our battle plans to take out this hive."

"Yes, taking out a hive is a rather strenuous thing to do," she quipped,

"Hm, since we lack any kind of bomb and building one would take too long, we've decided to burn this hive," started Paladin Sever,

"Fire is a good way to go," commented YinYang,

"Yes, here is our plan. We've got multiple canisters of oil mixed with a high concentration of napalm, our plan is to send our men in with these canisters. As they move through the hive they'll spread the stuff around."

"Then when its time, we light the stuff on fire," concluded Anna,

"Correct."

"Fire may not be enough," said Bear, "even with all that, some bugs may be able to crawl out in time. Just one bug could start a new hive."

"That's why we have these," said Sever, one of his Lieutenants placed a dozen plastic rectangles on the table.

"Semtex, nice," commented Anna,

"Indeed, we'll use it to completely collapse the entire first level of the hive, that way we'll block any kind of escape for the bugs, "explained the Paladin, "after that we'll do another sweep of the area and make sure none truly escape."

"Alright, so how are we going in?" asked Bear,

"We've identified four tunnels that the bugs use to exit their lair. The first wave of men will clear away initial resistance, the second wave will consist of the flamethrowers, the third will be their reinforcements. Hopefully the attack will be fast enough that the bugs will be slow to respond. Provided everything goes according to plan."

"Nothing ever goes according to plan when Bugs are involved Paladin," said Anna. Sever just nodded.

"Alright, lets do this."

**Ak'shara** watched as the small Ooman army mobilized itself. In that large group of Oomans was Arna, who was probably the most skilled of all of them. Judging by what his mask told him, the Oomans were definatly ill equipped to take on the serpent hive. Their intervention may be necessary after all.

"I'm amazed that they have the courage to even attempt this," commented L'hiem,

"I see the small one, she is armed. Do you think she will take part in this battle?" asked Ta'veta,

"This world has become a harsh one. If she is to survive, she must learn the ways of war" was Ak'shara's only reply.

"Do you think she will live?" asked Ta'veta, a small trace of worry in his voice.

"Probably."

"What about you're the other one?" asked L'hiem,

"Which one?"

"The one you have become aquianted with."

"If any of them live, it will be her. I can guarantee that much," he said.

"You have faith in her?"

"Yes."

**Anna **stood with her three companions at hive entrance #2, they were to accompany the first wave into the hive. The entrance was a fairly large cave, about 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide.

At their designated entrance, they had been paired with four other knights, including Knight Turk and Squire Zed. Behind them stood another ten knights, two of them carrying flamethrowers.

The knights looked very anxious, many of them were tapping their foot or doing some other activity to calm themselves. Those younger ones, like Zed, were especially jittery, yet Trip stayed as calm as her companions. Zed turned and saw this, then stopped himself from rubbing the barrel of his shotgun so much.

All of them waited for the signal, any moment now it would go off.

The suddenly, the sound of a gun shot split through the air.

"GO GO GO!" shouted Turk,

The first wave charged. Anna flicked on her light and went forth, her nerves steeling themselves for the task at hand.

The sound of boots against the ground filled the tunnel, the sounds of heavy breathing clouded their ears.

It was only five minutes until they found trouble.

"BUG!" shouted someone, everyone pointed to a single bug on the ceiling. It screeched at them, its silvery teeth flashing in their flashlights. The soldiers opened fire and cut it riddled it with bullets, the thing died before it hit the floor.

"Wow, that was easy," said a Squire,

Immediately after the squire had spoken his assumption, another hiss broke through the air. The knights turned their lights down the tunnel, revealing dozens of the creatures literally appearing out of the walls.  
Zed was the first to speak. "You just had to open your mouth!"

**End**

**So yeah, sorry that this is a little short. But don't worry, the next chapter will be pretty long I'm thinking. I apologize that there was absolutely no action in this chapter, but the next one will be super actiony.**

**Anyway, I think as a way to temporarily vent, I'll follow the Predtards example and post ideas on my account page. Come check them out. Thanks for reading and please review, remember that they are what keep me going.**


	13. Chapter 13

Yes! It is mid-winter break for me! I love it, now I can work on this story some more, I expect to do at least one more update in addition to this one, but don't get your hopes up, okay. Anyway, just remember that AVP doesn't belong to me, blah blah blah, please review.

Also I'd like for anyone reading this to consider going to my page and taking my poll, because a poll needs people to actually take it, and no one has taken it so far, just saying.

Chapter 13

Valley of The Shadow of Death

"_Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me." Psalm 23:4_

Ak'shara stood silently with his brothers at the tip of the cliff, his eye carefully observing the battle. The first wave of the human's army had just charged into the hive, already he could hear the sound of their weapons firing; he could especially hear the sound of those that were panicking. Those who were under control, even a little bit, had a certain rhythm to their methods, but those that were afraid, would be sporadic and pulling the trigger as much as they could.

The majority seemed to me well under control, that was good; but every now and then, he could hear the sound of a quick release of fear through a weapon. Adding to the problem was the more of the humans that died, the more would panic, and then those would die as well.

**Anna **slapped in a fresh magazine into her rifle and resumed fire, bullets spewed from her weapon into the oncoming wave of shadows. Already one of the knights had fallen prey to the bugs tenacity, his comrades watched helplessly as the man was dragged away, screaming as he went. They could only prey that he was simply killed, for far worse fates we in store for those that were not.

Of the entire group, the one that was most surprising was Zed. Unlike his previous engagement in the sewers, he was now much more collected; his reloads were smooth, his shots well placed, and his legs never wavered. The young warrior fired his shotgun just in time to kill a bug that had tried to rush him.

To his left, Bear wrecked absolute destruction on the forces of the enemy, his gun was an endless stream of death, the air around him was filled with the smell of gun powder and fire. The tide of bugs simply fell down in front of him, few even got within five feet of him.

"Keep moving forward!" commanded Anna, she reloaded her gun and resumed fire as she advanced further into the hive. Trip was the first to follow after her, reloading as she went.

"You okay?"

Trip nodded a small smile on her face, he breath slightly ragged. Anna gave her a quick smile and resumed he advance, deeper into enemy territory.

The knights behind them looked highly reluctant, but Knight Turk gave them a through chew out, and any that still stayed back he kicked in the ass.

"Come on, go!" he shouted angrily. Anna sighed, she wouldn't be surprised if half the hive came running for them because of Turk's voice.

"Yang, take point," whispered Anna, the Asian man nodded and moved to the front of the formation, with Bear to the back and the two girls at the sides.

The team of Knights and Mercenaries moved on into the hive, encountering no resistance for a good five minutes. As they moved, one of the knights began to unload his canister of fuel onto the ground, giving the air a strange metallic taste.

"Something's not right, we aren't fighting," Anna suddenly said,

"Typical mercenaries, always blood thirsty and savage," said a knight, his voice full of venom.

"No, I mean it shouldn't be like this, by now the bugs would have attacked or at least sent a scout," Anna shot back,

"Maybe they're afraid," suggested Zed,

"Bugs don't have fear, they feed on it," said YinYang calmly. A moment after he spoke, another hiss broke through the air.

The warrior's weapons immediately snapped into ready position, the beams of their flashlights danced around the cave wall in a vain attempt to reveal the enemy.

"Where is it? Where is it?"

"These things are messing with us!"

"Stay calm," commanded Turk, "do not fire until you have a clear target!"

Had the Crusaders not been so fearful of their life, perhaps they might have spotted their quarry. They might have seen the shadows begin to move along the walls. They might have seen the creatures slowly creep out of their hiding spots. But they did not see, not until it was too late.

A scream broke through the silence.

The group of Crusaders turned into the center of their formation and looked on in horror as one of their men was lifted into the air; a black tail protruding through his chest as blood gushed out.

"SHOOT IT!"

All guns immediately turned towards the bug holding their comrade, it was instantly shredded to pieces as a thousand bullets suddenly pierced through its body.

The minute the drone's body (or what was left of it) it the ground, the true battle began. A drone suddenly burst from the wall and pounced through the air, crashing into Anna with a hundred pounds of pure killing power, it was only through pure luck that Anna had raised her rifle in time to stop the drone's mouth.

Another drone broke from its hiding spot and grabbed one of the knights from behind, if it could, the drone would have smiled as it saw the man's eyes widen in fear. The black beast wrapped its claws around the man's throat and savagely ripped it out; the knight had just enough breath to gurgle as a fine crimson mist came from his neck.

Zed was the first to see their comrade fall, he leveled his shotgun with the creatures face and pulled the trigger, a grim satisfaction flowed through him as he watched the drones face get torn to shreds from the powerful buckshot.

YinYang tried to come to Anna's aid but then spotted a trio of bugs racing towards them from down the tunnel, Anna would have to fend for herself, and right now he needed to deal with the more immediate threat.

His Uzi snapped up to his eye, he let out a sustained burst that quickly cut down the first drone. He fired again, expertly spraying the remaining two with a steady stream of lead.

Anna desperately tried to push the drone back, but it was undoubtedly stronger than her. However, she would by no means give up, that phrase had never even been part of her vocabulary. Pushing it as far back as she could, she curled back her legs then shot them out with all her strength. The bug was flung off of her; Anna immediately pushed herself up into a sitting position and hosed the bug down with bullets.

She saw a flash of movement in top part of her vision, instinct took over as she fell on to her back and opened fire on the bug just above her.

Anna managed to turn her head just in time to see Trip fire a burst from her SMG into an oncoming bug. The drone stumbled back in pain, and when it didn't die, Trip fired another burst into the center of its chest, then a coup de grace for good measure.

Anna felt a small flame of satisfaction burn inside her as she pushed herself up from the ground. That flame quickly died as she turned back to the little soldier,

"Trip duck!"

Without hesitation, Trip immediately dropped to her knees just in time to miss having her head taken off by a bug's claws. Anna charged forward while firing her rifle, the drone withered in pain and crumpled to the floor.

"You okay?" asked Anna as she pulled of her protégé,

"Y-yeah," said Trip,

"HISSSSSSSSSS!"

The two female mercenaries turned to see at least a dozen drones crawling their way up the tunnel towards them.

"Shoot!" shouted Anna, the two simultaneously opened fire on the incoming horde. Many of them fell to the ground under the barrage of gunfire, but bad luck intervened. Both Anna and Trip ran out at the same time, which meant nothing was holding back the bugs.

The bugs suddenly became like lighting, doubling their speed. Anna's hands quickly went for her sidearm, she managed to unholstered and raise it, only to have it smacked out of her hand by a bug only a few inches for her.

"Damn," was all she could say as the thing grabbed her by the shoulders, suddenly, in a blur of motion, the bug was viciously smacked away from her; Anna's entire vision was taken up by the person in front of her, Bear.

Bear brought his foot up and smashed it down on top of the wriggling bug's head, crushing it like a rotten piece of fruit.

Trip spotted another bug just behind him, ready to tear the giant man to pieces.

"L-look out!" warned Trip,

Bear whipped around and smashed the thing's face in with the butt of his gun, it died before it had even hit the ground. Seeing the horde of black demons rushing towards him did little to scare the man.

He simply shouldered his weapon, and pulled the trigger. Despite not even aiming his weapon, the bugs began to tumble to the floor, the ground was being carpeted with the bodies of their dead. The cave was filled with the never ending sound of his machinegun, until finally, he ran out of ammo.

By then, all the bugs had died, save one who had had its legs destroyed and was now futilely trying to crawl its way towards them.

Bear drew his revolver and blew its head off.

"You okay?" asked the middle aged Russian,

"Yeah," said Anna, pushing herself up, "Trip?"

"I-I'm fine," she said, reloading her weapon.

Anna nodded, behind her she heard the sounds of the final shots being fired and the last bugs being taken care of.

"Status," she yelled,

"We've lost three men," started Turk, his face glimmering with sweat. He wiped some of it off with his sleeve and continued, "We've all still got enough ammo for at least two more engagements. Two of us have minor injuries, no major."

"Good, we'll wait here for the second wave, start setting up the lights and defenses," she commanded, Turk nodded and went off to rely the orders.

In a matter of minutes, the team of Crusaders had set up two powerful lights that illuminated the entire tunnel and a good stretch of it down the way. Two of the knights stood at guard duty to watch for any bugs that might come down for another attack.

Bear pulled out a cigarette and started smoking it, blowing puffs of smoke every now and then. Anna and Trip sat down on the ground, leaning back against the wall. YinYang walked about as if on his own patrol.

"You really should stop," said YinYang, "those will eventually kill you."

"I don't care," said Bear, taking another huff of his cigarette, YinYang shrugged and moved on.

"Nice try, but you really should give up," commented Anna as he walked by her, "he's never going to stop."

"If he doesn't, I won't," said Yang before moving on.

Anna sighed. "Those two," she muttered, a minute later they began to hear the sound of boots walking across the ground.

Ten Crusaders, two of which had flamethrowers, had arrived as their reinforcements.

"Knight Thompson reporting," said the lead knight, a man with dark blond hair and a large nose.

"You're our reinforcement's right?" asked Anna,

"Yeah that's right," said the Thompson,

"Alright good," she started, "we've got a plan for this. We'll have four knights in the front and the two flamethrowers behind them. If we encounter bugs, the front four will move away for the flamethrowers to do their thing. The front guard is just backup in case things get to hot."

"Sounds good to me," said Thompson, "You hear the lady! Four in front, flamethrowers behind them. The rest of us will walk in rows of four!"

The Crusaders quickly assumed the formation and in a short time were marching through the hive, save for three that had stayed behind to prevent any bugs from getting out. It felt better to travel in such a large group; humans by nature were social beings, so it came to be no surprise that the tension in the air seemed to be completely gone.

But Anna knew better, she had once been in such a group during the Bug War. She, along with her friends, knew that they still were very much in danger. They might have gained numbers, but the enemy still had more.

Her eyes kept darting around, watching every corner for any enemy. Honestly, she also half expected to see Samael suddenly appear out of nowhere carrying a bug's head on his glaive, or for him to shoot a plasma bolt directly over her head in order to save her from a bug that she had failed to notice.

Honestly, she'd feel much safer with him by her side, then the whole Crusader garrison in this town. In fact she was pretty sure that in a fight, he would win against them without so much as a single scratch. Just earlier today she watched a movie about his latest fight.

_Flashback:_

_1 hour before base camp had been set up_

_Anna sat quietly in her room as she went through her equipment and making sure that each was in tip top working condition. The last thing she needed was a piece of equipment crapping out on her in the middle of a battle._

_She was just in the middle of cleaning out her sidearm when she felt a strong had touch her shoulder. She instinctively whipped around in her chair, knife in hand, prepared to stab if it was an enemy. But she never even brought her knife into a ready position; the same hand stopped her arm dead in its tracks before she could even do anything about it._

_Thankfully she didn't need to, the intruder had been Samael._

"_Jesus Sam, I nearly stabbed you to death. Be more careful," she complained as she re sheathed her knife._

_Samael just tilted his head, like a curious cat would do. Anna wonder if he even understood what she had just said._

"_Erkay," he said,_

"_So what is it this time?" she asked, fully expecting that he had come to inform her of some new development._

_Samael held up his wrist computer, tapped in a few commands and held it out in front of him. The computer suddenly became like a mini projector as it shot out a hologram onto the wall._

"_Whoa, handy," muttered Anna,_

_The video seemed to show from under Samael's mask, or rather what Samael must see behind his mask. It started off with Samael arguing with his friends, she could tell because weapons were being unsheathed and Samael seemed to be flinging his arms around the place. Then, in the corner of his vision, he saw a swarm of bugs charging for them._

_But the swarm isn't what drew Anna's attention, it was the Praetorians and the Ravager, or as her comrades had once called them; The Big Blue Bastards._

_A small spike of fear shot up Anna's spine. If the hive had a Ravager, then it was a very developed hive, developed enough that Anna would like more forces than the Crusaders had on hand._

_As the video progressed, Anna was subjected to quite a show. She watched as Samael and his friends practically tore the bugs to pieces. She especially like how he took down the ravager, with only his wrist blades too. It was actually quite entertaining to watch him rip off its head._

"_Truble," growled Ak'shara,_

"_Tell me about it," sighed Anna, it felt like an extra fifty pounds had been dropped on her soldiers. She'd feel better if she was instead going with a platoon of Spetsnaz operatives, but she didn't have that luxury.  
"Are you gonna be there to?" she asked softly,_

"_If need," he replied in perfect English,_

"_Hm, well, I guess that mean you probably will,"_

_End of Flashback_

The humans continued their advance deeper into the hive, leaving behind them a trail of fuel to burn.

"Hey, how is that fuel coming?" asked someone,

"Almost out, get the next canister ready," replied another.

"A-Anna, is something wrong?" asked Trip, noticing her friends unusual tenseness,

"Yeah, I feel like they're just playing with us," whispered Anna,

"W-what do you mean?"

"I mean, we haven't really been attacked yet. Not seriously at least."

A soul splitting screech ripped through the air, everyone's flashlights immediately began searching the tunnel.

"Contacts down the tunnel!" shouted Zed,

"Flamethrowers, now!" commanded Thompson,

Immediately the two Knights holding the Flamethrowers stepped out in front of their comrades and released a hellish torrent of fire. The incoming wave of bugs was instantly roasted alive; some died instantly, others withered on the ground in absolute pain.

Yet, still more came, simply stepping around their fallen brethren.

"Weapons free!" announced Anna,

Immediately the entire group opened fire, Anna watched as a bug pounced down from the ceiling down on to a knight. The man foolishly fired into the bug, only to have its blood burn through him in a matter of seconds.

"Watch the sides!" shouted Turk.

The Flamethrowers provided a great help, not only did they destroy large amounts of the bugs but they also helped illuminate the tunnel and make it easier for all of them to see.

Suddenly the same screech that they heard from the beginning tore through the air again, followed a series of very loud thumps.

"Uh oh,"

The entire front row was swiftly bashed aside as a Praetorian suddenly charged up from the tunnel, its arms waving around like wrecking balls as it plowed through their ranks.

"Shoot it!"

All the Crusaders that had yet to be knocked down clumsily opened fire on the gargantuan beast.

Anna sprayed the thing until her entire magazine was dry, the bullets didn't even leave a scratch, its exoskeleton was simply too thick.

The giant bug snatched a knight right off his feet and crushed the man's spine; another it stomped to death, the next was simply shattered by its tail.

"Get back!" shouted a knight, one of the two carrying a flamethrower. The brave man rushed at the Praetorian and let loose a quick burst of flames, the shot was a bit off and only grazed the bug slightly. Even so, it stumbled back in pain, embolded by his own actions the knight pressed forward.

"I've got this!" he announced, he raised his flamethrower for another burst.

In a blur of motion the Praetorian's tail suddenly smacked the knight away, sending him smashing against the wall. The giant immediately picked its self-up, it reared back its head and suddenly convulsed forward.

The knight had just barely gotten back to his feet when a glob of acid burned into him, he died screaming and in pain.

"It can spit acid, watch out!" warned Anna,

Wasting no time, she reloaded her rifle and carefully sprayed a steady stream of bullets towards the thing's face. It did little in the way of actually killing it but it seemed to irritate it enough to stumble back.

"Bear, I need some covering fire!"

"Covering fire coming right up!" he yelled, then let loose a hail storm of bullets on the Praetorian. The heavy bullets from his gun must have hurt because the Praetorian screamed as it was bathed in gunfire.

Anna made a sprint for the flamethrower on the dead man's back; it might be their only hope to combat the bullet proof bug. So concentrated was Anna that she failed to notice the Praetorian stagger towards her, its claws wildly waving around.

She only realized it when the bug's claws racked against her side, it was like someone took a hot knife and dug it in as hard as they could between her ribs. Any normal person would have screamed out in pain and fallen to the floor, but she was not a normal person.

Her training took over and she blocked the pain from her mind, using it instead to fuel her sprint toward the objective.

She quickly snatched up the flamethrower as soon as she reached it and leveled it at her prey. The Praetorian was almost upon her, but she showed no fear as she unleashed a hellish stream of fire on the beast.

Flames danced along its black exoskeleton as it was utterly consumed, it tumbled to the floor as it vainly tried to put out the flames, but to no avail. The flames held strong thanks to the mixture of tar and oil used in the flamethrower, the bug's movements soon became slowed and eventually, stopped all together. The flames soon died out as well.

Anna's breath returned to normal. She calmly stood up and dusted herself off and walked to the Praetorian.

Amazingly, it was still alive, but just barely. It managed to weakly raise its head and let out a small hiss.

Anna smirked and brought out her special side arm, a Desert Eagle. She aimed it down at the helpless giant.

"This area's clear, proceed to next sector," then pulled the trigger.

**Alright, how was the Chapter? I hope it was good enough for you guys, I plan on updating a little later in the week since I'm on break. To be clear I said "planned" that doesn't mean it will happen, I'm still human after all, or am I? No, I am.**

**Anyway, I've been watching this anime called Bleach, which until now I had no idea even existed.**

**Anime fans: GASP!**

**Yes I know, I'm actually a huge anime fan but I don't have a lot of time so I can't go around checking different anime. Gotta say though, I like it. It's on par with anime like Naruto, or VanHelsing.**

**If you've read my profile (go read it damn you) you will know that due to my new liking, I have started thinking of how to make a Bleach Fanfic. I even came up with my own character, I like, 2 days. I'm serious; it's actually a pretty fast process for me. I've been making my own characters for years so I'm full of practice.**

**In any case, this may hamper my writing ability for a while since my mind is sorta focused on Bleach. I even paired my character with the cat lady, Yoruichi Shihoin. **

**(Who by the way is hot)**

**OFF stage: BAM! WHACK! PUNCH!**

**Sorry, my teenage hormones got the better of me that time. Don't kill me. Anyway, yeah. That's how it's going so far.**

**By the way, I have a poll created on my profile page so go check it out because I'd appreciate it a lot. After all, you kinda need people in order for polls to work.**

**So that's it.**

**Review please!**


	14. Chapter 14

Been a while hasn't it? I haven't updated in…how many weeks has it been? But, despite what you people believe, I am not invincible. I'm a high school sophomore with awesome teachers but a *cough* mother that's hard to please. So yeah, I'm not god. I wish I was, and then I could help everyone. But alas, fate did not decide that to be…and I'm rambling.

I've also been playing Dragon Age 2 a lot. It's totally awesome! I recommend it. If I had to give it a score, I'd say about 9/10. It's just my opinion; you don't have to agree with it.

In any case, I've been having a small amount of writer's block, but on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Aliens or Predator…what else do you want me to say?

Chapter 14

Guardian Angels

"_It is not known precisely where angels dwell - whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode." ~Voltaire_

Ak'shara peacefully stood on his ledge. But perhaps peaceful was the wrong word to use. His insides burned with pure anxiety as he imagined what might happen if that ooman did not leave that wretched place alive. Worst case scenario, they would have nothing to lure the bad blood in. The pure thought of failure made him want to smash a rock or something, maybe punch L'hiem in the face; that might help.

His brothers, who had long gotten tired of watching the Oomans, were off doing their own little things. Ta'veta was busy stacking rocks on top of each other; he wanted to see how many he could stack successfully before they fell down. L'hiem tinkered with one of his flyer, according to him it wasn't flying fast enough.

"What do you think he's thinking of?" whispered Ta'veta as he gestured to his quiet friend.

"The ooman female," replied L'hiem

"How much do you want to bet that he shall end up rutting the female?" he asked deviously,

"I'm appalled that you would bet on such a serious matter," replied L'hiem without even looking up,

"Come now, it will be fun!"

"You're wasting your time," said L'hiem, "I am quite sure that it will not happen, and I am usually right."

"Don't be a coward,"

"If he finds out, he'll make us sore for days, weeks even!" he warned.

"Is that a yes?"

Ta'veta could practically feel victory close at hand; L'hiem suddenly jerked his head up,

"Uh…"

Ta'veta turned around to see Ak'shara but five feet from him, the large alien visibly shrunk himself down, awaiting the inevitable beating his leader was about to give him. The sound of each of his steps drew closer and closer, then, suddenly, father and father.

Ta'veta opened the eyes he had unconsciously shut, to see Ak'shara walking away towards the ship's ramp.

"I bet ten chips," said Ta'veta, still dumbfounded he remained unscathed.

"Agreed," said an equally stupefied L'hiem, "if anything, this will be an interesting turn of events."

**Squire Kavrin **was upset to say the least. He was upset because it wasn't fair. Squire Zed had been allowed to go into the hive as well as a half a dozen of his other friends. But not him, no, he was stuck out here, patrolling the mouth of one of the caves, while the knights in charge set up the charges on the wall of the caves.

"Bitches," he muttered,

"What was that squire?" asked one of the knights,

"Nothing sir," he said immediately, swearing wasn't forbidden, but it was frowned upon. It meant you had to rely on profanity to express what you needed to say.

The knight didn't press him further and went back to work on the explosives. Karvin examined his rifle a few times to keep his mind occupied but it did little to push through the boredom.

"Bastards," he muttered to himself, the sound of steps echoed behind him. He nearly leaped out of his skin; it was probably the knights ready to smack him across the head.

"Sir," he said as he turned, "I did-"

He never finished his sentence.

**Anna's team **had made good progress since their encounter with the Praetorian. They'd lost 6 men in the encounter and at least half of the living had minor wounds but they managed to regroup and press on further.

As they got further, the resistance from the bugs got stronger. By now, they were all starting to run low on ammo, and after spending such a long time in the dark, everyone was understandably jittery and tired.

Worst of all, it was almost dead quite the entire time, everyone expected a bug to come leaping out at them at any moment. It was just getting unbearable when a soft squishing sound of flesh interrupted the quiet.

"Hold up," commanded Anna, holding up her fist. Everyone obediently came to a halt. The cave was suddenly filled with a skittering noise.

"Facehuggers!" she shouted, everyone immediately raised their weapons.

"Move, slowly," she ordered, together the group of humans quietly and carefully crept forward, their lights dancing across the cavern floor.

Eventually, they reached the entrance of what looked like to be a large chamber.

It was there that they found their objective, the eggs. Every foot or so there was a large oval shaped egg, its fleshy moist skin oozed with a sort of gooey substance that coated them after being laid. The chamber was at least as tall as a two story building, strange ribbed tubes went up against its walls. At the very top, a small hole, let in a bit of natural sunlight, allowing the human's to turn off their lights.

"Nobody, make any, sudden, movements," warned Bear,

"Back up, slowly and get that oil barrel up here," ordered Anna as she took a step back. Behind her she heard the sound of the oil barrel being dragged across the floor. The knight holding it finally reached the front of the line and tossed it into the middle of the eggs.

"Hey!" a voice quietly shouted, the group looked to the other side of the chamber to see another group of knights, one of their own tossed another oil barrel. The leader held a thumbs up, Anna returned the gesture.

"This is Team one," said a voice over the radio, "we've completed the objective,"

"This is team two, we've completed the objective."

"This is team four, we've completed the objective."

"This is team six, we've completed the objective."

"This is team three, we've completed the objective."

"This is team five," said Anna, "we've completed the objective."

"Let's get out of here everyone," she whispered as she began to turn around.

The team eagerly turned back to chamber's opening, an excited young knight was the first to reach the exit. Perhaps it would have been better if he didn't. As soon as he tried to take his first step out, a razor sharp tail burst from the darkness and impaled him through the chest.

Blood splattered from his body and coated the two knights behind him. But the dead Crusader's fate was merciful. Out of the darkness two facehuggers sprang forward and wrapped themselves on the faces of the two Crusaders that had followed their companion forward.

The hasty charge came to a sudden stop. A dark brown head poked its way through the darkness, the small amount of sunlight allowing them to see their adversary.

A large banana shaped head, praying mantis like arms tipped with sharp bone like blades. It's back held six long tube appendages, each carrying four facehuggers.

"It's a Carrier!" shouted Anna,

"Shoot!" yelled a knight.

All hell broke loose as both sides went on the attack. Using its tube like appendages, the Carrier flung facehuggers at the remaining Crusaders. Some of them found their marks and wrapped themselves on the helpless Crusader's faces. Other's managed to be shot out of the sky before being able to find a host.

YinYang, using his near supernatural eyes, nailed most of the spider like creatures right out of the air. Just as his Uzi clicked empty, a facehugger lunged towards him, its legs spread wide open. Knowing that reloading would be too slow, the Asian man's hand whipped out and caught the parasite just in front of his face. The thing's tail flailed wildly as it desperately tried to free itself.

YinYang flung it to the ground and madly stamped it to death.

The Carrier, while its main function was to fling its tiny brethren at suitable hosts, was far from defenseless. Its tail dangerously swung through the air, knocking a lone Crusader against the wall. Its thick skin seemed nearly impervious to bullets, though there were a few wounds. And its powerful arms could have easily cut a man in two.

Anna unloaded an entire clip into the beast, but it only seemed to get more pissed off. A helpless night was decapitated only a meter away from her. Already her entire team had been halved, either by facehuggers or the Carrier itself.

Behind her, more gun fire echoed from the other Crusader team.

Anna turned just in time to see one of their knights get throw clear across the chamber and smashed into the wall. Men screamed as they funneled back into the chamber, many firing wildly behind them.

A Ravager burst from their tunnel, its bladed hands wreaking havoc among the human ranks.

"SHIT!" shouted Bear as he sprayed the incoming Carrier. The brown beast charged him with full speed, he barely managed to roll out of the way as it came barreling towards him.

Trip fired a supportive burst of fire at its exposed backside, though it barely seemed to affect it at all.

"Retreat!" ordered Anna, those who could ,immediately made a dash for the exit. A knight with a flamethrower stood his ground and unleashed a stream of flame at the Ravager.

It screamed if fury and pain as the flames licked at its exoskeleton, the knight perhaps felt a small tinge of hope as the large blade cleaved through his chest. At least he died happy. Men screamed as addition nightmares came to kill them.

Anna fought on, a bug lunged at her. She sidestepped and fired a sustained burst into its back side. Another ran at her, she expertly sprayed the remainder of her clip into it. She hit the release and slapped a fresh clip into her rifle.

Dozens of bugs crawled their way down the walls of the chamber, she squeezed the trigger and hosed the horde back. Somewhere to her side she saw Bear and YinYang fighting back to back, their combined efforts managing to at least temporarily stop the incoming horde.

To her left, Trip bravely stood her ground against the nightmares. Her gun flashed in the darkness, and every time it did, there would be another body on the ground.

From her right, a bug rushed her, wisely opting to catch the young warrior of guard. But it had underestimated her. She quickly whipped around and blasted it on full-auto. Her victory was short lived, as another leaped at her from above, barely managing to raise her gun in time, she hastily jammed down on the trigger, the bullets tore through the bug's abdomen.

But even in death, the creature served its purpose. Acid rained down on a fleeing girl, though she managed to avoid most of the deadly fluid, a few drops managed to find their way on to her vest. By the time she started to realize her predicament, it had already nearly burned through. She quickly flung of her vest, only to find residue acid on her tank top.

Not worried about embarrassment, she stripped off her tank top. She was suddenly thankful that women wore bras.

But the bugs were not done, another of their kind leapt from the shadows and landed right in front of the girl. Unfazed she raised her gun and squeezed the trigger.

Click. Click. Click.

She had forgotten to reload.

The bug slapped the empty weapon away and grabbed her by the neck with its boney hands. It opened its mouth, revealing its inner set of teeth.

'They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die,' thought Trip as she gazed into its maw, 'but that's a lie.'

There were many things the young girl could have tried to do. Call for help, attempt to get away, or even just try to struggle and stall the creature. But instead, she opted to do one thing, and say two words.

Building up her saliva, she spat in its face.

"FUCK YOU," she managed to say.

The bug reared back its head, when suddenly something smacked it away. Trip was violently thrown to the ground, a second later she heard gun fire and the screams of the bug that had but a moment ago had her in its grasp.

She opened to see Zed, loading his shotgun and the bug dead on the ground.

"Come on get up," he said holding out his hand, Trip grabbed it and let him pull her back up. She quickly scooped up her weapon and reloaded.

The two turned to see Anna, still fighting the incoming horde. Her face had a few new cuts and her vest had been slashed to ribbons.

"GO!" she yelled to her comrades as YinYang and Bear came to her assistance. The two nodded and managed to run past the bugs out into the exit, the few bugs that followed were quickly put down.

"Anna!" shouted Trip as she neared the exit,

"Keep going, I'll be right behind you!" called Anna,

"B-but-"

"GO!" yelled the mercenary,

Seeing no alternative, Trip dashed through the exit. Zed was about to follow, but was stopped when Anna shouted,

"Zed! Light the fuel!"

"But we're still in here!" he protested,

"Just do it!" she ordered as she blasted another bug.

Zed saw a flame thrower, still attached to a dead knight. He quickly scooped up the hose and pulled the trigger. Nothing.

Zed cursed his luck, but now was not the time to dwell on his luck. He needed to light the fuel. Then he remembered, Trip's good luck charm.

He pulled it out of his pocket and struck the primer, a small flame burst to life on the lighter. Without hesitation, he tossed the lighter into the puddles of oil.

He made a mad dash towards the exit, behind him, the fuel lit and engulfed the chamber in a hellish inferno.

Anna, still in the chamber, desperately fought on. By now, the Carrier had tired itself out. Yet it still managed to dog her relentlessly. At least all of its face huggers were gone.

But the problem was, she was out of ammo. Her rifle hung uselessly from her strap, and only her sidearm remained. As large a caliber it was, it wouldn't be enough.

"Damn it," she muttered, there had to be a way, there was always a way to win. Her hand shakily reached for her sidearm, but as she did, she felt something else. It was long, cylindrical and cold. It was the spear that Samael had given her.

She grasped it and pulled it out, squeezing the handle the weapon turned into a heavy 7 foot long spear.

The Carrier roared at her, as if issuing a final challenge to its prey.

"Come on bitch!" she taunted, Anna didn't know if it could understand her, but it felt good to say.

The Carrier charged, its lumbering feet quickly picking up speed. Anna didn't have the slightest idea of how she was going to do this, but she had to try.

The Carrier was soon upon her, using its head like a battering ram, it attempted to crush her under his immense weight.

Anna swiftly rolled away from the incoming creature and watched it slam into the wall.

Though ever muscle in her body screamed in protest she hauled herself up and charged forward. With a savage war cry she thrust the spear forward and into the side of the Carrier's head. It screamed in pain as the sharp metal slowly dug deeper and deeper. It somehow lived despite the growing wound. Anna pushed the spear deeper.

The Carrier would be dead and it knew it, but it refused to go down lying on its belly. It lashed out with its bladed arm in an attempt to bring the human down with it. Had Anna not been so tired, she would have noticed the incoming blade, instead it came and slashed her across the ribs, it dug deep and cut wide.

Anna screamed in pain, but managed to stay on her feet. The spear still lodged in its head, the Carrier fidgeted and died.

Anna's gasped for breath, fire's burned around her and bodies littered the floor, a perfect picture of war. Still, she was screwed. The fire had caused the structure to crumble and block her entrance. With no way out, she knew she wouldn't be able to live through this one.

"Damn it, never got to have sex," she muttered, a small chuckle erupted from her. Here she was, covered in blood and sweat, fires burning around her and death all around, and she was thinking of how she never got to have sex.

"Heh, there is something seriously wrong with me," she muttered. A screech interrupted her train of thought.

The Ravager, she had completely forgotten about it. It stepped through the flames, its blue exoskeleton scorched and dented.

"Well, at least it's better than being impregnated," she muttered to herself in dry humor.

The Ravager raised its arms, ready to cut the puny human into two.

Anna closed her eyes, and waited for death to claim her.

But it never came, it wasn't her time to go. A blood curling roar tore through the air, Anna's eyes snapped open, the Ravager turned from its prey to the ceiling.

From the small opening at the top of the chamber, a dark figure leapt down.

"Samael?"

The hunter seemed to glide down from the ceiling, his arm's outstretched as he fell towards the oversized bug.

Samael crashed down onto the Ravager's back, his wrist blades unsheathed and gleaming almost evilly in the light. Without hesitation, the hunter sunk both blades into the Ravager, the fine blades cleaving through its exoskeleton as though it were butter. The Ravager screeched in pain and desperately shook itself in an attempt to dislodge the hunter from its back.

**Most **Yautja would never have thought of doing something as crazy as jumping down on top of a Serpents back in an attempt to kill it. For Ak'shara however, it had been something he had always wanted to do.

Burning adrenaline coursed through his veins as her repeatedly sunk his blades into the Ravager's back. First right, then left, then right, then left again, tirelessly hammering the beast with his blades. Its blood began to flow freely down its back, it smashed itself against a wall in a vain attempt to dislodge him, but to no avail. He held firmly onto its back and continued to slash at it.

Though he remained on his back, he had to end this fight soon. The hive was literally falling apart around the two combatants. Tucking his legs under him and placing the soles of his feet on the Serpents boney back, he dislodged his blades and jumped forward.

Using his outstretched arms, he grabbed onto the creature's domed head. The force of the jump combined with his overall weight caused the large serpent to topple over onto its belly. Ak'shara tucked into a ball and rolled to absorb the impact of his fall, but immediately sprung back to his feet.

Not letting the Ravager recover for a second he leapt through the air, drawing back his right hand, he swung it forward and sunk his wrist blades into the side of the Serpents head.

With a single fluid motion he dislodged them and swung his left arm, bringing his blades across its face. The Serpent hissed in pain, but Ak'shara felt no pity for his prey.

He was Yautja, the top predator in the hierarchy of the universe, no mercy would be given.

The Ravager attempted to swing its head back towards him and push itself up at the same time. As soon as it came back face to face with Ak'shara, its fate was sealed.

Ak'shara swung his right arm in an uppercut motion, sinking his blades deep through the bottom of the its jaws.

For a moment, it seemed to have died. Its head drooped, and its body seemed to have become ridged.

Ak'shara began to relax, when suddenly its head raised itself back up and opened its maw to reveal its inner teeth, ready to tear through his head.

With a squeeze of his fist, Ak'shara's blades grew an extra foot and shot clean through the serpent's cranium, the tips clearly protruding out the top of its head.

With a sickening sound, he pulled the blades from its head and let it fall to the ground.

Taking in a deep breath, he let out a roar of victory.

But that victory, was rather short lived, a small moan came from behind him. He twirled around to see the ooman female, bloodied and bruised.

**Anna was in a lot of pain. **She'd been through worse, but no matter how many times she got injured, the next time was never easier.

"God damn it," she muttered as she held her wounded side. She felt a strong hand grab her by the shoulder, she opened her eyes to see Samael, standing tall and proud over him. She glanced behind him and saw a decapitated Ravager, another look at her savior revealed that he had strapped the head to his back.

"You have a hell of a knack for timing," she said with a pained smile,

"Hell of a knack for timing," she heard her own voice reply. Maybe it was because of the smoke, but she was feeling a bit light headed.

A sudden stab of pain in her side woke her right up, it was as if electricity was rushing through her nerves. She looked down to see that Samael had injected her with one of his medical devices.

"Ugh, you could have warned me," she muttered as she struggled to stand up, only managing to by leaning against the wall.

She coughed violently, it was getting hard to breath, probably because of the smoke and fire.

"We've got to get out of here," she said, letting loose another barrage of coughs.

Samael held up a finger, wait. He jogged over to the dead Carrier, her spear still lodged into its head. He tore out the spear, which amazingly had stayed intact, and quickly sliced off the head of the Carrier, strapping it to his back.

"Of course," she said with a small smile. "But how the hell are we gonna get out of here? The door's blocked."

Samael quickly remedied that problem. Pressing a few buttons on his wrist computer, his hand was suddenly covered with sheets of metal. He drew back and landed a solid punch against the debris, sending it crashing down.

Turning back to her, he easily scooped her up bridal style and carried her through as though she weighed nothing more than a sheet of paper.

A screech echoed down the halls as two bugs came rushing towards them. Both were suddenly put down by a two bolts of blue energy. Anna turned her head to see Samael's brothers following only a few feet behind them. The larger one, Titan, gave them a thumbs up sign.

**Right now **Trip hated the Crusaders.

"Y-you can't blow it up now! J-just wait a bit more, I'm sure she's on her way now," pleaded Trip,

"I'm sorry," said Paladin Sever, a hint of sadness in his voice, "but we can't delay any longer."

"But Anna always comes out alive," she protested, "J-just wait a bit longer,"

Paladin Sever sighed, poor kid. Still believing that that woman is invincible, still hasn't learned to accept that everyone dies eventually.

"I'm sorry," he muttered as his hands reached for the detonator,

"NO!" screamed Trip, she rushed forward to grab the detonator from his hands only to be stopped by two knights. The young girl kicked, screamed and even bit at his men, all the while pleading for him not to pull the trigger.

He wanted to believe she was alive, she'd survived the war, the bugs, and missions that made him shake in his boots and want to pray to god. But judging from the reports he'd been given, not even she could survive.

"May you find peace Anna," whispered Sever, it was always the good ones that had to die first. He flipped the cap and pulled the trigger.

A dozen explosions went off simultaneously. The caves collapsed upon themselves, trapping whatever happened to be under them under a solid wall of dirt and rock.

Trip collapsed to the ground, her mind unable to comprehend the loss of her dearest friend. Tears streamed down her eyes

"B-but, Anna always comes out alive," she sobbed.

Paladin Sever felt his heart grow heavy, it was never easy to see people cry. It was even worse when it was kids.

Trip clumsily got to her feet and stumbled to the pile of rubble blocking the entrance. Through her tears she vainly attempted to dig her way through.

Bear weakly walked over, the large man's eyes had a tint of red to them, he comfortingly put a hand on the little girl's shoulder. YinYang remained as passive as ever, though he stood with a slightly less dignified posture.

The entire camp seemed to have grown a bit darker as they all gathered around the pile of rubble. Some said silent prayers, others crossed their hearts in respect, while some, some just stayed quiet.

The quite, was suddenly interrupted by a loud thud, followed by the sound of a few falling rocks. Then another, much louder thud. Soon another, and another, until it was quite apparent that something was breaking through the rock wall.

The knights quickly raised their weapons.

A final thud and an explosion of dust and rock came flying out of the pile of rubble.

"WHO THE FUCK PULLED THE TRIGGER BEFORE I GOT OUT!" yelled a female voice,

"Unbelievable," muttered Paladin Sever

What happened next was not what the Crusaders were expecting. Out of the dust, came three large, very strange looking people. Dreadlock hair, tribal like masks, metal armor, and Anna in the arms of the middle figure.

Many of the Crusaders visibly backed up, unsure what to make of these new players.

"ANNA!" squealed Trip, she rushed over to the wounded woman and immediately wrapped her in a large hug.

"OW! Jeez kid, I'm still injured, take it easy will," winced Anna,

"I-I'm so glad you're okay," sobbed Trip through tears of joy.

"Come on, don't cry. Kids your age don't cry," muttered Anna, though she returned the hug.

**By now, Ak'shara **was feeling very uncomfortable. He didn't do this whole, feelings thing.

"I had no idea your heart contained so much kindness in it," teased L'hiem, "what next? You'll apologize to your prey before you kill it?"

"Shut up," muttered Ak'shara, having had enough he gently let the ooman female down. She leaned on her comrades for support as her injuries were still too severe.

"I must be crazy," he said to himself,

"No your just in heat," said Ta'veta,

"Leave me alone."

"**Thanks again," said **Anna as her savior placed her back on the ground.

"Anna," said Paladin Sever as he approached her, "your alive!"

Anna drew back her arm and punched him square in the nose. The knights seemed horrified at what she had just done, cowards.

"Bastard, what's with locking me up in there," she said gesturing to the pile of rubble,

"Well," he said, still holding his nose, "I was pretty sure you were dead, evidently I was wrong."

"whatever, next time check in with me," she growled,

"Right, I'll definitely do that," he said, massaging his sore nose, "now, how's about you introduce your…friends."

"uh…"

She felt a tap on her shoulder, she turned to see Samael holding out her spear to her. She managed to grasp it and put it back into its collapsed form.

The alien put a fist to his opposite pectoral, and performed a small bow, his brothers performed similarly.

With that, the hunters turned around, quite dramatically, and activated their cloaks. Disappearing into the wind as if they were never here.

**So, how was the chapter? I realize that is been a while since I've written anything but school is killing me, and it's only going to get worse for me. I do not look forward to Junior year.**

**Also I've been playing quite a bit of Dragon Age 2, which is friggin awesome, and a bit of Bleach. Anyway, I feel I should tell all of you. The next thing I'm going to post is going to be sample chapters of my possible Bleach Fanfic, because Bleach is awesome.**

**Ak'shara: WHAT? I thought I was your main guy! Your supposed to finish my story THEN move on!**

**DB: Well what can I say, my imagination is a strong one.**

**Kuroda(dark voice): You can't blame him for who he is, you might as well get over it.**

**Ak'shara: Shut up new guy!**

**Kuroda: You're the one talking.**

**DB: Why me?**

**Who is Kuroda? Well, you'll just have to find out by reading my sample chapter.**

**Review, and subscribe.**

**Bye.**

**(Please review, I don't think I can go on if you don't!)**


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